Encapsulation of hexanal in bio-based cyclodextrin metal organic framework for extended release

Porous materials have been widely studied for encapsulation and controlled release of active species for packaging applications. This study examines the encapsulation efficiency of hexanal in γ-cyclodextrin metal organic frameworks (γ-CDMOF) for potential active packaging applications. γ-CDMOF was synthesized and hexanal was encapsulated in the MOF using a vapor diffusion process. The synthesized MOF was characterized both before and after the encapsulation of hexanal using x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The diffraction peaks of various planes obtained from XRD characterization matched the theoretically calculated values. We identified the most stable docking sites using energy minimization calculations. FTIR and computational studied indicated hydrogen bonding interactions play a significant role in the stabilization of hexanal and γ-CDMOF inclusion complex. TGA characterization results revealed an encapsulation efficiency of about 15%. DSC and SEM study also supported encapsulation of hexanal in γ-CDMOF.