Stable aqueous foams created with intercalated montmorillonite nanoclay coated by sodium caseinate

Abstract

Fabrication of stable aqueous foams is significant to various food and non-food applications. In the present study, we report aqueous foams with a volume maintained for 14 days after whipping suspensions with intercalated montmorillonite (MMT) platelets coated with sodium caseinate (NaCas). Intercalating MMT preheated at 60 °C for 1 h with room temperature NaCas solution resulted in a good extent of intercalated and exfoliated MMT platelets coated with NaCas. The high extent of MMT intercalation and exfoliation may have enabled the formation of relatively uniform and spherical bubbles, mechanically strong films, and a viscoelastic continuous phase, all of which may have helped to stabilize bubbles against various destabilization mechanisms. However, the insufficient MMT intercalation or excessive preheating causing re-aggregation of MMT platelets may have led to less than optimum structures and stabilities of foams. This study contributes to materials-based approaches to form aqueous foams with excellent kinetic stability valuable to various applications.