Acoustic waves as a new tailoring tool for lipid-based oleogels (Academy of Finland)

Oleogels are new lipid-based materials able to substitute saturated fats without affecting the final structure of the product. Although oleogels have great potential, there is an urgent need to find new technologies able to finely modify oleogel structural properties and increase their storage stability. This project develops a new, economic, and environmentally friendly technology able to modify in a controlled manner the crystallization and post-crystallization structure of oleogels. The hierarchical structure of oleogels will be altered at nano and microscopic scales to obtain stable systems with tailored characteristics. The obtained systems will be thoroughly characterized in terms of polymorphism, lamellar thickness, supramolecular structure formation, thermal properties, crystal morphology and size, texture, and oxidation products to finally obtain oleogels with superior and novel features responding to specific needs.