Associate Prof. Behrouz Ghorani, academic member of RIFST Nanotechnology Department, stated that “Nanofibers are defined as fibers with diameters less than 100 nanometers. As the diameter of the polymer fibers decreases from micrometers to nanometers, interesting properties appear in them, such properties as increasing the surface-to-volume ratio, increasing the flexibility in surface functional groups, entanglement of the fibrous network, resulting in excellent mechanical such performance as stiffness and tensile strength and reduced pore size, are the most significant”.
Regarding the application of nanofibers in the food industry, he said “encapsulating bioactive compounds and increasing their bioavailability, increasing the efficiency of molecular imprinting for filtration, designing sensors with higher accuracy, producing food packaging and strengthening the structure of gel networks are among the applications of nanofibers in food industry”.
Dr. Ghorani continued: "In order to access the latest scientific and industrial developments in this field, the sabbatical for industrial studies was planned and implemented in Le Qara Company, located in Peru, which uses green processes to produce various products."
Also, he mentioned that some projects were conducted during his sabbatical leave.
It is worth mentioning that the Department of Food Nanotechnology at RIFST is one of the leading research groups in Iran that specializes in applying nanotechnology in the field of food industry.