Polyacrylic Acid-Reinforced gelatin hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties, temperature-responsiveness and antimicrobial activity for smart encryption and salmon freshness monitoring.

Hydrogels hold great potential for use in intelligent packaging, yet they often suffer from limited functionality and inadequate mechanical strength when applied to anticounterfeiting and freshness monitoring. In this study, we present a straightforward method to create a multifunctional hydrogel by in-situ polymerizing acrylic acid (PAA) within a gelatin-Al system. The resulting hydrogels exhibited an elongation at break of over 1200 %, a tensile stress of 1.

Ammonia-responsive chitosan/polymethacrylamide double network hydrogels with high-stretchability, fatigue resistance and anti-freezing for real-time chicken breast spoilage monitoring.

Hydrogels are a promising option for detecting food spoilage in humid conditions, but current indicators are prone to mechanical flaws, posing a concern for packaging systems that require strong mechanical properties. Herein, a double network hydrogel was prepared by polymerizing methacrylamide in a chitosan system with aluminum chloride and glycerol. The resulting hydrogel demonstrated high stretchability (strain >1500 %), notch insensitivity, excellent fatigue resistance, and exceptional anti-freezing capabilities even at -21 °C.

Effects of mild alternate wetting and drying irrigation and mid-season drainage on CH and NO emissions in rice cultivation.

Rice, one of the major sources of CH and NO emissions, is also the largest consumer of water resources. Mild alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation is widely adopted to save irrigation water resources and maintain rice production, but its effects on CH and NO emissions are unclear. In addition, previous studies have revealed different effects of mid-season drainage on global warming potential (GWP), owing to the different criteria used.