Agricultural skin grafting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9744542-B2
Application number	US-201313953504-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2013
Priority date	Jul 29, 2013
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

A method of forming a material structure from structural units contained within a liquid solution in a spray head is described. The liquid solution includes a solvent and a solute, the solute comprising a plurality of the structural units, the structural units including monomer units, oligomer units, or combinations thereof. The method comprises forming droplets of the liquid solution including the structural units, and spraying the droplets on a substrate, thereby substantially increasing the reactivity of the structural units within the droplets relative to the structural units within the liquid solution in the spray head. The increase in reactivity can result from the droplets containing an excess of a particular ion, the ion excess resulting from a voltage applied to conductive walls of the device which dispenses the droplets. The material structure is then formed on the substrate from the more highly reactive structural units within the droplets.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of forming a material structure from structural units contained within a liquid solution in a spray head, the liquid solution including a solvent and a solute, the solute comprising a plurality of the structural units, the structural units including monomer units, oligomer units, or combinations thereof, the method comprising:
forming droplets of the liquid solution including the structural units, and spraying the droplets on a substrate; wherein
the spraying of the droplets increases the reactivity of the structural units within the droplets relative to the structural units within the liquid solution in the spray head, thereby enabling the structural units to covalently bond with one another or with the substrate at a higher rate than before the increase in the reactivity; and
the material structure is formed on the substrate from the structural units within the droplets.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material structure is a coating, and the coating surrounds the substrate.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the substrate is edible to humans, and the coating is an edible coating.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the coating is configured to prevent or suppress water loss or uptake by the substrate, volatile loss or uptake by the substrate, oxidation via reaction with oxygen gas that can diffuse into the substrate, or surface abrasion.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material structure is a coating, and the coating is formed over a portion of the substrate.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spray head includes a capillary electrically connected to a first terminal of a voltage supply, and voltage provided by the voltage supply causes a surface of the liquid solution adjacent to the capillary to have a net electrical charge.

7. The method of claim 6 , the spray head further including an annular electrode, wherein a second terminal of the voltage supply is electrically connected to the annular electrode.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein a second terminal of the voltage supply is electrically connected to an electrical ground.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the droplets are formed from liquid solution at the surface adjacent to the capillary, causing the droplets to have a net electrical charge.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising allowing solvent from the droplets to at least partially evaporate, wherein the net electrical charge of the droplets causes the liquid solution contained within the droplets to have a different ion concentration than the liquid solution contained within the spray head after the at least partial evaporation of the solvent.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the difference in ion concentration between the liquid solution contained within the droplets and the liquid solution contained within the spray head causes the structural units in the droplets to be more reactive than the structural units contained within the spray head.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein forming the material structure comprises polymerization of the structural units, wherein the polymerization occurs directly on or adjacent to the surface of the substrate.

13. A method of forming a coating over a surface of a substrate from monofunctional molecules contained within a liquid solution in a spray head, the spray head comprising a dispensing device, the liquid solution including a solvent and a solute, the solute comprising a plurality of the monofunctional molecules, the monofunctional molecules including monomer units, oligomer units, or combinations thereof, the method comprising:
causing a surface of the liquid adjacent to the dispensing device to become electrically charged;
forming droplets from the liquid solution at the electrically charged surface, causing the droplets to have an electrical charge, and directing the droplets to the surface of the substrate, wherein the droplets include a plurality of the monofunctional molecules of the solute; and
forming the coating over the surface of the substrate from the plurality of the monofunctional molecules in the droplets; wherein
forming the coating comprises forming at least a monolayer coating of the monofunctional molecules; and
forming the coating further comprises causing a plurality of the monofunctional molecules to each form a covalent bond to a bonding site on the surface of the substrate.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising allowing solvent from the droplets to at least partially evaporate, wherein the net electrical charge of the droplets causes the liquid solution contained within the droplets to have a different ion concentration than the liquid solution contained within the spray head after the at least partial evaporation of the solvent.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the difference in ion concentration between the liquid solution contained within the droplets and the liquid solution contained within the spray head causes the monofunctional molecules in the droplets to be in a more non-equilibrium state than the monofunctional molecules contained within the spray head.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the coating is configured to prevent or suppress water loss or uptake by the substrate, volatile loss or uptake by the substrate, oxidation via reaction with oxygen gas that can diffuse into the substrate, or surface abrasion.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the substrate is edible to humans, and the coating is an edible coating.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the liquid solution within the spray head is configured such that the structural units in the solute within the spray head are in a substantially equilibrium state, such that they do not substantially bond with one another.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the dispensing device comprises a capillary.

20. The method of claim 13 , the dispensing device including an electrically conductive wall and the spray head including and annular electrode, wherein the causing of the surface of the liquid solution adjacent to the dispensing device to become electrically charged comprises applying a voltage between the electrically conductive wall and the annular electrode.

21. The method of claim 13 , the dispensing device including an electrically conductive wall, wherein the causing of the surface of the liquid solution adjacent to the dispensing device to become electrically charged comprises applying a voltage between the electrically conductive wall and ground.

22. A method of forming a coating over a surface of a substrate from structural units contained within a liquid solution in a spray head, the spray head comprising a dispensing device, the liquid solution including a solvent and a solute, the solute comprising a plurality of the structural units, the structural units in the solute including monomer units, oligomer units, or combinations thereof, the method comprising:
causing a surface of the liquid solution adjacent to the dispensing device to become electrically charged;
forming droplets from the liquid solution at the electrically charged surface, causing the droplets to have an electrical charge, and directing the droplets to the surface of the substrate, wherein the droplets include a plurality of the structural units of the solute; and
forming the coating over the surface of the substrate from the plurality of the structural units in the droplets; wherein
the liquid solution within the spray head is configured such that the structural units in the solute

Assignees

• Apeel Tech Inc
• Apeel Tech Inc

Inventors

• Rogers James T

Classifications

• A23B9/14

  Coating with a protective layer; Compositions or apparatus therefor · CPC title

• A23P20/18 Primary

  by spray-coating, fluidised-bed coating or coating by casting (combined with breading A23P20/12) · CPC title

• B05B5/0535 Primary

  at least two electrodes having different potentials being held on the discharge apparatus, one of them being a charging electrode of the corona type located in the spray or close to it, and another being of the non-corona type located outside of the path for the material · CPC title

• A23N15/06

  Devices for other treatment of fruit, e.g. marking, maturing, polishing · CPC title

• A23B4/10

  Coating with a protective layer; Compositions or apparatus therefor · CPC title