Hot Alkaline Solution Research Articles

Superhydrophobic cotton for addressing fatbergs through oily wastewater treatment

Fats, oils and grease (FOGs) deposits in sewers have recently become a significant problem, causing financial strain on water companies, damaging sewer lines, and exposing the environment to dirty water through sanitary sewer overflows. Despite the proactive use of grease traps/interceptors for physical oil-water separation, the issue of FOG deposits persists. This study proposes the use of adsorption-based oil-water separation, employing superhydrophobic cotton, as a new alternative method for removing FOGs. Durable superhydrophobic cotton was successfully prepared using a simple two-step sol-gel method, with octadecyltrimethoxysilane (ODTMS) as a modifying silane. The resulting cotton samples demonstrated remarkable superhydrophobicity, evidenced by water contact angle (WCA) above 154°. Additionally, it exhibited exceptional durability and stability when exposed to hot water, harsh acidic and alkaline solutions, as well as during a laundry test. Moreover, the cotton displayed excellent oil-water separation efficiency (> 98 %) and maintained consistent performance throughout 20 reuse cycles, highlighting its high reusability. This approach holds the potential to address the prevailing FOG deposit issues and contribute to more efficient and sustainable wastewater management practices.

Improved wear resistance and recycling of carbon fiber/epoxy composites via incorporation of regenerated lignin cellulose

Combining wood matrix with thermosetting resin promises to be a new generation of resin-based friction material alternatives. Herein, regenerated lignin-cellulose (RLC) was prepared by waste wood, and precursor matrix slurry (EP@RLC) was obtained by mixing aqueous epoxy resin (EP) with RLC in different proportions. The impregnation and low-temperature curing processes were used to realize the combination of carbon fibers (CFs) and wood-plastic matrix. RLC filled the voids between CFs and adhered to their surfaces to build a CF-RLC reinforced structure, improving the surface roughness of the CFs/wood-plastic resin-based composite (CFs/EP@RLC) and enhancing the tensile strength and wear resistance. It has excellent mechanical strength with the tensile strength of up to 151.9 MPa, tensile modulus of up to 8.52 GPa, and toughness of up to 9.05 MJ/m3. In the tribological performance test, CFs/EP@RLC showed a stable friction coefficient (0.06) and low wear rate (0.64 mm), and no damage occurred at the interface of CFs after a long period of cyclic testing. In comparison with current research on resin-based friction materials, the CFs/EP@RLC meet the requirements in terms of mechanical and tribological properties. Besides, the CFs contained in end-of-life products can be easily recovered in hot alkaline solutions.

A Study of the Mechanisms and Characteristics of Fluorescence Enhancement for the Detection of Formononetin and Ononin.

In this work, the origins for the spectral difference between two isoflavones, formononetin (F) and ononin (FG), are revealed via a comparison study of the fluorescence molecular structure. The fluorescence enhancement of FG in hot alkaline conditions is reported for the first time. For F, there is almost no fluorescence under acidic conditions, but when the pH is >4.8, its fluorescence begins to increase due to the deprotonation of 7-OH. Under a pH between 9.3 and 12.0, the anionic form of F produces a strong and stable fluorescence. The fluorescence quantum yield (Yf) of F is measured to be 0.042. FG shows only weak fluorescence in aqueous solutions under a wide range of pH until it is placed in hot alkaline solutions, which is attributed to the cleavage reaction of the γ-pyrone ring in FG. The Yf of FG is determined to be 0.020. Based on the fluorescence sensitization methods of F and FG, the quantitative analysis and detection of two substances can be realized. The limit of the detections for F and FG are 2.60 ng·mL-1 and 9.30 ng·mL-1, respectively. The linear detection ranges of F and FG are 11.7~1860 ng·mL-1 and 14.6~2920 ng·mL-1, respectively. Although the structural relationship between F and FG is glycoside and aglycone, under hot alkaline conditions, the final products after the cleavage and hydrolysis reactions are essentially different. The different fluorescence characteristics between F and FG pave a way for further identification and a quantitative analysis of the corresponding components in Chinese herbal medicine.

Scalable and all-season passive thermal modulation enabled by radiative cooling, selective solar absorption, and thermal retention

Temperature regulation of infrastructures by active heating and cooling approaches consumes about 20% of the total energy across the world, intensifying the energy crisis and exacerbating global warming by greenhouse gas emissions. In this work, we demonstrate a strategy for the all-season passive thermal modulation enabled by its three-mode functionality of radiative cooling, selective solar absorption, and thermal retention in a scalable manner. The radiative cooler consists of a 50μm thick Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film with its back coated by broadband reflective silver (Ag) thin film (200 nm in thickness). The high solar reflectance (Rsolar, 0.95) and thermal emittance (ϵIR, 0.9) of the PDMS-derived radiative cooler facilitate the subambient cooling effect during the hot summer. The selective solar absorber is derived by selective leaching the aluminum (Al) element in the aluminum alloy by the hot alkaline solution to form the solar absorption copper (Cu) nanostructures over the all-wavelength reflective alloy substrate. The high solar absorptance (αsolar, 0.95) and low ϵIR (0.05) of the selective solar absorber assist the efficient solar harvesting during the daytime of the cold winter, meanwhile, its low ϵIR suppresses the radiative heat dissipation helping the thermal retention during the cold nighttime of the winter. The fabrication of the radiative cooler is derived by roll-to-roll casting, while the selective solar absorber can be manufactured by the solution process, which allows the all-season passive temperature regulation in a scalable manner.

Autoxidation Products of the Methanolic Extract of the Leaves of Combretum micranthum Exert Antiviral Activity against Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV).

Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) is a new damaging plant virus of great interest from both an economical and research point of view. ToBRFV is transmitted by contact, remains infective for months, and to-date, no resistant cultivars have been developed. Due to the relevance of this virus, new effective, sustainable, and operator-safe antiviral agents are needed. Thus, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid was identified as the main product of the alkaline autoxidation at high temperature of the methanolic extract of the leaves of C. micranthum, known for antiviral activity. The autoxidized extract and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid were assayed in in vitro experiments, in combination with a mechanical inoculation test of tomato plants. Catechinic acid, a common product of rearrangement of catechins in hot alkaline solution, was also tested. Degradation of the viral particles, evidenced by the absence of detectable ToBRFV RNA and the loss of virus infectivity, as a possible consequence of disassembly of the virus coat protein (CP), were shown. Homology modeling was then applied to prepare the protein model of ToBRFV CP, and its structure was optimized. Molecular docking simulation showed the interactions of the two compounds, with the amino acid residues responsible for CP-CP interactions. Catechinic acid showed the best binding energy value in comparison with ribavirin, an anti-tobamovirus agent.

Corrosion in Caustic Soda in Mineral Processing Operations

Because of the high cost of energy, hydrometallurgy is frequently preferred to smelting to extract metals from ores. Many of these processes involve leaching of the metal with an acid, often sulfuric acid. However, there are some processes that use alkaline leachates, such as sodium hydroxide. Hot alkaline solutions present somewhat different corrosion problems to acidic ones and this paper presents data on the corrosion performance of metals and polymers in hot alkaline solutions. Some case histories from the mineral processing industry are used to demonstrate the importance of correct material selection in these corrosive solutions.

Carbon dots self-decorated heteroatom-doped porous carbon with superior electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction

Developing advanced carbon materials as a metal-free electrocatalyst to replace noble metal-based one for, but not limited to, oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is of great allure but remains challenging. In this work, carbon dots (CDs) self-decorated, N, S codoped porous carbon (NSPC) was fabricated by alkali-assisted protein decomposition and reconstruction. Specifically, in hot alkaline solution, proteins hydrolyzed into protein fragments, and then part of the fragments formed highly crystalline CDs. After freeze-dried and pyrolyzed, the CDs-containing protein fragments were converted into CDs/NSPC composites. The as-prepared CDs/NSPC possesses rich edge, heteroatom-dopant, high porosity, and smooth electron transfer between CDs and NSPC, synergistically contributing to CDs/NSPC such an outstanding ORR catalytic performance that even outperforms Pt/C. Furthermore, CDs/NSPC was evaluated as an air electrode catalyst for Zn-air batteries with excellent stability and high-power density.

Quantification of β-Glucan from Culinary-Medicinal Mushrooms Using Novel Artificial β-Glucan Recognition Protein.

(1->3)-β-D-glucans (BGs), found in culinary-medicinal mushrooms, exhibit an immunostimulatory effect; hence, it is important to measure the content of BGs contained in mushrooms. BGs content in a mushroom extract was measured using a recombinant BG-binding protein, supBGRP, and compared with the existing BG assay using BGs antibody. The specificity of supBGRP enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was evaluated using a commercially available polysaccharide reagent. The supBGRP did not react to barley glucan, dextran, mannan, pustulan, and xylan, but reacted to sonifilan, and only slightly to curdlan. Among the BGs tested, supBGRP was most reactive to lentinan. The glucans were extracted using hot water and alkaline solution from the fruit body of the following edible mushrooms: Pleurotus ostreatus, Grifola frondosa, Lentinus edodes, Hypsizygus marmoreus, Flammulina velutipes, and Auricularia polytricha. All BGs extracted from edible mushrooms were detectable; in particular, the reactivity of supBGRP toward the alkaline-extracted fraction from Lentinus edodes was higher than that toward polyclonal antibody for BGs. The results suggest that supBGRP had a specific reaction to BG. The supBGRP seems to be superior to antibodies due to easy availability as a reagent and stability as a protein molecule for measurement of BGs.

An 18.9% efficient black silicon solar cell achieved through control of pretreatment of Ag/Cu MACE

With diamond wire sawn (DWS) technique becoming mainstream of multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells, the corresponding texturing technology for light harvesting is more prominent. In order to further reduce production costs of mature Ag-based metal assisted chemical etching (MACE), an Ag/Cu MACE method was proposed. In this paper, the influence of different pretreatment method which has few studies reported before was investigated. The experimental results indicated that appropriate pretreatment could contribute to achieve uniform nanostructure, low reflectivity and recombination velocities of the silicon wafers. The light trapping mechanism of different texturing method was analyzed. The impact of nanostructure on surface passivation was also studied. Industrial large area solar cells have been fabricated by applying different texturing method. The results showed that the pretreatment using hot alkaline solution with texturing additive was more beneficial to achieve high conversion efficiency. Finally, an efficiency of 18.91% was obtained on DWS mc-Si wafer, which is 0.4% absolutely higher than the cells with traditional acid texturing.

Effect of Micromorphology on Alkaline Polymer Electrolyte Stability.

Recent studies demonstrated that the chemical stability of alkaline polymer electrolytes (APEs) could be improved by reducing the inductive effect between cations and backbones. Therefore, pendent cations were recommended. However, microphase-separated morphologies would be generated by elongating the spacer between cations and backbones, which have a significant influence on the chemical stability of APEs too. In order to analyze how the patterns of micromorphology affect the chemical stability of the materials, in the present work, four APEs ( a1-QAPS, a3-QAPS, a5-QAPS, and a7-QAPS) with different lengths of side chain between polysulfone and quaternary ammonium are synthesized. The longer the side chain is, the more obvious the microphase separation for the a x-QAPS membranes is observed. After immersing in a hot alkaline solution (80 °C, 1 M KOH) for 30 days, a5-QAPS exhibits the highest chemical stability. The ion exchange capacity and ionic conductivity of a5-QAPS film are reduced by 10.0 and 10.5%, respectively. The weight loss of a5-QAPS membrane is 8.0%, which is similar to the value of the pristine backbone. The increased chemical stability can be ascribed to the suitable micromorphology constructed in a5-QAPS sample. Besides, a5-QAPS membrane shows a high conductivity of 75.5 mS cm-1, whereas the swelling ratio is limited to 15.0% in liquid water at 80 °C. In addition, a peak power density of 339.1 mW cm-2 is obtained by applying a5-QAPS as the APE to the H2-O2 fuel cell at 60 °C.

Bio-polyols synthesized from bio-based 1,3-propanediol and applications on polyurethane reactive hot melt adhesives

Since polyol is one of the major components in the preparation of polyurethane adhesive, bio-based polyols applied in the adhesive can make them sustainable and environmentally friendly. Regarding of these properties, a series of new bio-based aliphatic poly(1,3-propylene dicarboxylate) diols were synthesized by bio-based 1,3-propanediol (bio-PDO) and aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with different chain lengths. These bio-based polyester diols combined with 100% renewably-sourced poly(trimethylene ether) glycol (PO3G) further reacted with 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) to form polyurethane reactive hot melt adhesives (PURHMAs). The thermal and physical properties of sustainable PURHMAs were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Finally, the adhesion properties of PURHMAs on four different substrates were measured, in order to investigate the influence of carbon numbers in the repeating unit of bio-based polyester diols on the morphology and adhesive properties of PURHMAs. It was found that with increasing carbon numbers in the repeating unit, the compatibility between the bio-based polyester and PO3G chains in the PURHMAs was enhanced, the open time of PURHMAs became shorter, and the green strength was also improved. The adhesion performance of bio-based PURHMAs on different substrates was tested, and the results showed that all bio-based PURHMAs had good adhesion to PC, nylon 6 and stainless steel substrates. Furthermore, the bio-based PURHMAs also exhibited excellent bonding strength on PC substrates after the bonded PC/PC joints were aged under the condition of hot water or alkaline solution. All these results suggests that the bio-based PURHMAs can be used in automobile applications.

Development of Highly Conductive and Highly Durable All-Aromatic Anion Exchange Membranes By Using Thermally Convertible Precursor Polymer

Solid Alkaline Fuel Cells (SAFCs) using Anion Exchange Membranes (AEMs) attracts increasing attention for next-generation fuel cell technology. SAFCs have many advantages over proton exchange membrane fuel cell such as variable choice of metal electrode catalyst and fuels. However, the commercialization of SAFCs is limited due to the lack of high-performance AEMs. Commonly, AEMs have low ionic conductivity and poor durability in alkaline medium. In this study, we developed a novel AEM comprises of wholly aromatic, anthracene-based, backbone as a chemically durable membrane. Commonly, such kind of polymers exhibits very low solubility in common organic solvent due toπ-πstacking. Thus the processability into a membrane is very difficult. Our unique molecular design is employing bulky Thermal Leaving Group (TLG) on the precursor polymer allowing this polymer to be cast as a film due to high solubility (>300 mg/ml). Then, TLG on the membrane film was removed by performing retro Diels-Alder reaction1,2 in the solid state to obtain a wholly aromatic membrane (figure 1 (a)). The precursor polymer was obtained by Suzuki-Miyaura coupling of the monomers. The methyl group of the resulting polymer was converted to benzyl bromide and finally to quaternary trimethylammonium bromide to afford the target precursor polymer (TPP). The polymer structure and molecular weight were analyzed by 1H-NMR and GPC. Ion exchange capacity (IEC) was determined by titration. The in-plane ionic conductivity of the membrane is evaluated by AC impedance method. Stability test in hot alkaline solution and Fenton solution was performed to check the chemical durability of the membrane. Molecular weight and IEC of synthesized TPP are 13,000 g/mol and IEC 2.49, respectively. Target polymer (TP) membrane was then obtained by just heating TPP membrane and removing TLG. The best heating temperature was determined to be 180 oC by TGA-MS analysis. IEC of the membrane has increased to 3.16 after thermal conversion. Despite higher IEC value, water uptake of TP membrane was lower than TPP membrane probably due to the strong intermolecular interaction of TP membrane. Therefore, TP membrane keeps higher IEC even after water uptake and this may result in high anion conductivity. Figure 1 (b) shows the ionic conductivity of TP membrane before and after the durability test. The membrane kept initial HCO3 - conductivity even after exposed to a very harsh alkaline solution (8M NaOH for 21 days at 80 oC) and Fenton solution (H2O2 3 wt%, FeSO4 3 ppm at 60 oC for 8 hours). This is a solid proof that the TP membrane has both high durability and high conductivity, meeting for SAFC application. These findings suggest that the use of TLG on polymer backbone allow development of new design concepts for highly-durable and highly conductive AEMs.

Inhibition mechanism of the radical inhibitors to alkaline degradation of anion exchange membranes

We employed four radical inhibitors to investigate their influences on the degradation of poly (4-vinylbenzyl chloride-styrene) based anion exchange membranes (AEMs) in alkaline solutions. It is found that the presence of the radical inhibitors could effectively restrain the nucleophilic attack of hydroxide ions to the AEMs according to the conductivity measurements, especially the one p-ethyl phenol (PEP), which could significantly protect the AEMs against the attack. More evidences including water uptake, swelling ratio as well as FT-IR analysis further proved this phenomenon by comparison those properties of the membranes before and after the stability test in 8 M KOH at 80 °C for 24 h. According to the 1H NMR spectra, the quaternary ammonium groups of the AEMs were mainly degraded into tertiary amines in the hot alkaline solutions; while in the presence of PEP, this degradation was restrained and the quaternary ammonium groups maintained by reaction with PEP. Fenton test results further indicated that high oxidative stability of the AEMs benefited from the presence of a small amount of PEP, which could reduce the generation of the oxidants. Thus an inhibition reaction mechanism of the radical inhibitors preventing the AEMs from alkaline degradation is proposed.

Ether modified poly(ether ether ketone) nonwoven membrane with excellent wettability and stability as a lithium ion battery separator

In this study, poly(ether ether ketone) is first chloromethylated to improve the solubility and is later used for nonwoven membrane fabrication by electrospinning. Finally, the chloromethyl group was converted to the ethyl ether group and dibenzyl ether group in a hot alkaline solution. The abundant polar groups endow the membrane with excellent wettability, reducing the contact angle to 0°. The polymer matrix is crosslinked by dibenzyl ether group, endowing the membrane with excellent stability (insolubility in many solvents, and ultra-low swelling in the electrolyte at 80 °C) and good anti-shrinkage property (0% at 180 °C). The electrospinning-fabricated membrane remains stable until 4.812 V (vs. Li+/Li), meeting the requirement for use in lithium ion batteries. The interwoven structure of the nonwoven membrane effectively gives rise to the high electrolyte uptake of 215.8%. The ionic conductivity of the electrolyte-swelled electrospinning-fabricated membrane is 51% higher than that of the electrolyte-swelled Celgard membrane. As a result, the lithium ion battery with this nonwoven membrane exhibits an enhanced rate performance (up to 42.5% higher than the lithium ion battery with a PP separator) and satisfactory cycling performance.

Alkali treated Ti3C2Tx MXenes and their dye adsorption performance

To modify the adsorption performance of Ti3C2Tx MXene, we report a facile approach to expand the interlayer spacing of Ti3C2Tx and to tune its surface functional groups by hot alkaline solution treatment. In the treatment, the interlayer spacing of Ti3C2Tx MXene is increased by up to 29% by LiOH, and the surface functional groups are tuned by converting -F to -OH. Among the MXenes, LiOH-Ti3C2Tx and NaOH-Ti3C2Tx can faster adsorb methylene blue (MB) than other MXene adsorbents; NaOH-Ti3C2Tx possesses the highest adsorption capacity (189 mg/g) for MB, which can be ascribed to the cooperation of surface adsorption and intercalation adsorption. The experimental data suggest that the enhanced adsorption toward cationic dyes can be best described by a Langmuir isotherm.

Effect of Thermal Aging on the Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking Susceptibility of Type 310S Stainless Steel

The effect of thermal aging on the intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) susceptibility of Type 310S stainless steel was investigated. Samples were solution-annealed (baseline), sensitized (short-term aging), and thermally-treated (long-term aging) to form Cr-rich M23C6 carbides and sigma (σ) phase precipitate particles, respectively, on the grain boundaries. The thermal-aging heat treatments represent two limiting exposure conditions expected in-service for a fuel cladding in the Canadian Generation IV (supercritical water-cooled reactor) design concept and were considered to better understand the risk factors associated with an in-service IGSCC damage mode. The sensitized treatment exhibited the highest relative degree of sensitization (measured by double loop electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation testing in 2 M H2SO4 + 0.01 M KSCN) and IGSCC susceptibility (measured by slow strain rate testing [SSRT] in a hot alkaline solution). The relative susceptibility reflects the controlling role played by Cr-depleted zones, which were only observed in the sensitized (short-term aging) material. The relatively large σ phase grain boundary particles in the thermally-treated (long-term aging) material preferentially cracked during SSRT, suggesting an apparent IGSCC susceptibility at the sample surface. However, the absence of Cr-depleted zones in this material prevented IGSCC from occurring, despite preferential cracking in the σ phase grain boundary particles. The dominant fracture mode in the hot alkaline solution was transgranular mixed-mode cracking. The implications of the results are discussed within the context of risk factors associated with an in-service IGSCC susceptibility in supercritical water.

Kinetics of dissolution of glass fibre in hot alkaline solution

Kinetics of the dissolution of E-glass fibres in alkaline solutions was investigated. To allow an accurate determination of conversion, glass fibres were immersed individually in the corrosive medium and the diameter change was measured with the use of a scanning electron microscope. Few studies have been reported in the literature on the kinetics of E-glass fibre dissolution or the dissolution of individual fibres. Our experimental results fit well in the zero-order and shrinking cylinder models, suggesting either the diffusion of hydroxide ions through the solution or the glass fibre etching itself was rate-limiting step. The rate constant for the reaction of glass fibre with alkaline solution at 95 °C was found to be between 1.3 × 10−4 and 4.3 × 10−4 g/(m2 s). The reaction order (n) was determined as 0.31–0.49 with respect to the alkaline solution, and the activation energy was 58–79 kJ/mol.

Ionic crosslinking of imidazolium functionalized poly(aryl ether ketone) by sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) for anion exchange membranes.

Two N3-substituted imidazoles 1,2-dimethylimidazole and 1-butyl-2-methylimidazole were chosen to functionalize poly(aryl ether ketone), respectively. The generated imidazolium cations could electrostatically react with sulfonate ions of the sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) forming the ionic crosslinking structure of the membranes. The changes in crosslinking degree and the alkyl chain-length on N3 site of the imidazoliums could highly affect the properties of the anion exchange membranes (AEMs). The AEMs functionalized by 1-butyl-2-methylimidazole exhibited superior properties compared to those functionalized by 1,2-dimethylimidazole according to the tolerance tests of the AEMs towards hot alkaline solutions. After exposed to 1M KOH at 80°C for 200h, the 1-butyl-2-methylimidazole modified AEMs maintained the ion exchange capacity of above 85%, the conductivity of about 70%, and the tensile stress at break of around 80%, respectively. The hydrophile-lipophile balance of the polymer membranes was calculated and proposed to better understand the correlation between structures and properties of the AEMs. The degradation of the imidazolium functional groups of the AEMs under the attack of hydroxide ions was evidenced by FT-IR analysis.

Biological properties of water-soluble polysaccharides and hemicelluloses from almond gum

The aim of this work was to investigate the biological activities of almond gum polysaccharides (AGP) and almond gum hemicelluloses (AGH). Almond gum was first fractionated into AGP and AGH using hot water and alkaline solution, respectively. The antioxidant activities of both extracted polymers revealed interesting free radical scavenging activities through DPPH test (IC50 AGP=4mg/mL, IC50 AGH=6mg/mL), 2,2′-azinobis[3-ethylbenzthiazoline]-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) radical scavenging activity test (% inhibition ABTS=40.53±1.99% and 87.14±1% for AGP and AGH, respectively), reducing power capacity (RPAGP=20mg/mL, RPAGH=1.1mg/mL), and β-carotene bleaching inhibition (IC50AGP=18.5mg/mL, IC50AGH 0.8mg/mL). Antibacterial activities of both polymers were tested against pathogenic strains showing interesting growth inhibition. Moreover, AGP and AGH were also efficient to inhibit ACE; the angiotensin converting enzyme (at 1mg/mL, the ACE inhibitory activity was 75.81±1.53% and 90.86±2.47%, respectively). The results obtained in this study demonstrate the attractive biological properties of fractions obtained from almond gum and their potential to be used in numerous food and non-food applications.

Water-soluble polysaccharides and hemicelluloses from almond gum: Functional and prebiotic properties

This paper describes the extraction of polysaccharides (AGP) and hemicelluloses (AGH) from almond gum by hot water and alkaline solution, respectively. Structural and functional properties of the extracted polymers were then determined. For this purpose, infrared spectroscopy was first used to characterize functional groups of both polymers. The molecular weights of AGP and AGH were then determined using high performance size exclusion chromatography, resulting in 5.72×106g/mol and 5.39×106g/mol, respectively. Monosaccharide composition of both polymers was assessed using gas chromatography. The analysis of the functional properties showed that AGP and AGH had high water-holding (11.36g/g and 6.3g/g, respectively) and fat-binding (5.35g/g and 2.7g/g, respectively) capacities, with good emulsion properties. The prebiotic properties of AGP and AGH were then evaluated using in vitro fermentation by Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Both polymers showed suitability for in vitro fermentation, suggesting thus their prebiotic nature. The obtained results demonstrated the promising potential of AGP and AGH for different applications in food industry.