α-Tocopherol-loaded Polycaprolactone (PCL) nanoparticles as a heat-activated oxygen scavenger

A nanoencapsulation technique was applied to an oxygen-scavenging system, and thermal processing was investigated as an activator to trigger the oxygen-scavenging reaction. α-Tocopherol-loaded polycaprolactone (PCL) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared using an oil-in-water emulsion solvent evaporation method. The influences of iron(II) chloride, water, and thermal processing on the oxygen-scavenging capability were investigated. NPs without iron(II) chloride, moisture, and thermal processing had no oxygen-scavenging effect. However, the oxygen content (%) in the cup headspace of 20.9% decreased to 20.4% when the oxygen-scavenging system contained NPs, water, and iron(II) chloride. The oxygen content (%) decreased further to 19.5% when water was eliminated from the mixture. In this research, NPs and iron(II) chloride with thermal processing had an oxygen-scavenging capacity of 6.44 cm3 of O2/g and an oxygen-scavenging rate of 0.21 cm3 of O2 g(-1) day(-1). Results indicated that NPs and iron(II) chloride in an oxygen-scavenging system can be used as a heat-activated oxygen scavenger.