0000000000684373
AUTHOR
Annachiara Berardinelli
TiO2 in the food industry and cosmetics
Abstract The white pigment titanium dioxide is widely used in foodstuff and cosmetics mainly because it provides whitening effect, it acts as a physical filter in sunscreen products, and due to its photocatalytic properties. As food additive, it is labeled as E171 (Europe) and INS171 (United States), and its use was approved in 1966 by the US Food and Drug Administration and in 1969 by the European Union. According to a request of the European Commission, a scientific reevaluation of the safety of TiO2 when used as food additive was recently elaborated by European Food Safety Authority ANS panel. The TiO2 photocatalytic inactivation power is widely studied in order to nonthermally decontami…
Features and application of coupled cold plasma and photocatalysis processes for decontamination of water
Dielectric barrier discharge plasma and photocatalysis have been proposed as tools for decontamination of process water, especially in food industry. The present investigation aims to redefine and identify the features of coupling the two technologies in terms of degradation efficiency of a model compound. Results show that, when the process is carried out in plasma activated water in the presence of irradiated TiO2, the efficiency of the integrated process is lower than the sum of the two processes acting separately. It is proposed that afterglow species, e.g. hydrogen peroxide and/or peroxynitrites could be activated by UVA light irradiation producing hydroxyl radicals in the liquid phase…