Study of moisture adsorption isotherms characteristics of banana and thermodynamic properties using statistical physics formalism

Abstract

Modeling of food moisture content is of interest to correlate experimental data during the storage and packaging to predict the shelf life of the products. An advanced model using statistical physics formalism is used to interpret and discuss the sorption isotherm of water into banana. The desorption isotherms are obtained by the gravimetric static method at three temperatures (35 °C, 50 °C and 70 °C). The fitting allows interpreting the process at microscopic level. A steric interpretation by the mean of the number of molecules per site (n) allows describing the manner of desanchoring from the surface whereas the monolayer quantity Q₀ is in relationship with the density of receptor sites N_M represents an important parameter for industrial food. An energetic interpretation allows deducing the desorption energy of water during the desorption. By the mean of the statistical model, we calculated the pore size distribution (PSD) the surface of banana.

Keywords:

• Modeling
• sorption isotherm
• desorption
• statistical physics
• water activity

Disclosure of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the approval and the support of this research study by the grant N° SCI-2017-1-8-F-7520 from the Deanship of the Scientific Research at Northern Border University, Arar, KSA.