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The idea of building large structures from small building blocks has had a long history in the human imagination, from the beautifully intricate shells assembled from silica by unicellular algae to the Egyptian pyramids built from stone. Carrying this idea into the food industry has important implications. Here, we introduce a Pickering emulsion platform for building superstructures like hollow cages and sheets using starch granules as building blocks. In food, these superstructures occupy up to six times more space than their constituent parts, thereby delivering a viscosity greater by an order of magnitude than unstructured starch. To achieve this higher viscosity, they use an alternative superstructure mechanism as opposed to the classic swelling mechanism of individual particles. These super-thickeners may reduce calories, cut production costs, and stretch the global food supply, demonstrating how we can design the future by playing with our food. 

Nicotinamide riboside chloride (NRCl) is an effective form of vitamin B3. However, it cannot be used in ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages or high-water activity foods because of its intrinsic instability in water. To address this issue, we synthesized nicotinamide riboside trioleate chloride (NRTOCl) as a new hydrophobic nicotinamide riboside (NR) derivative. Contrary to NRCl, NRTOCl is soluble in an oil phase. The results of stability studies showed that NRTOCl was much more stable than NRCl both in water and in oil-in-water emulsions at 25 °C and 35 °C. Finally, we evaluated the bioavailability of NRTOCl by studying its digestibility in simulated intestinal fluid. The results demonstrated that NRTOCl was partially digestible and released NR in the presence of porcine pancreatin in a simulated intestinal fluid. This study showed that NRTOCl has the potential to be used as an NR derivative in ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages and other foods and supplement applications. 

In the present work, we describe an efficient method for scalable synthesis and purification of 1,4-dihydronicotinamide riboside (NRH) from commercially available nicotinamide riboside chloride (NRCl) and in the presence of sodium dithionate as a reducing agent. NRH is industrially relevant as the most effective, synthetic NAD + precursor. We demonstrated that solid phase synthesis cannot be used for the reduction of NRCl to NRH in high yield, whereas a reduction reaction in water at room temperature under anaerobic conditions is shown to be very effective, reaching a 55% isolation yield. For the first time, by using common column chromatography, we were able to highly purify this sensitive bio-compound with good yield. A series of identifications and analyses including HPLC, NMR, LC-MS, FTIR, and UV-vis spectroscopy were performed on the purified sample, confirming the structure of NRH as well as its purity to be 96%. Thermal analysis of NRH showed higher thermal stability compared to NRCl, and with two major weight losses, one at 218 °C and another at 805 °C. We also investigated the long term stability effects of temperature, pH, light, and oxygen (as air) on the NRH in aqueous solutions. Our results show that NRH can be oxidized in the presence of oxygen, and it hydrolyzed quickly in acidic conditions. It was also found that the degradation rate is lower under a N 2 atmosphere, at lower temperatures, and under basic pH conditions. 

Abstract The escalating presence of per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water poses urgent public health concerns, necessitating effective removal. This study presents a groundbreaking approach, using viologen to synthesize covalent organic framework nanospheres: MELEM‐COF and MEL‐COF. Characterized by highly crystalline features, these nanospheres exhibit exceptional affinity for diverse anionic PFAS compounds, achieving simultaneous removal of multiple contaminants within 30 min. Investigating six anionic PFAS compounds, MEL‐ and MELEM‐COFs achieved 90.0–99.0% removal efficiency. The integrated analysis unveils the synergistic contributions of COF morphology and functional properties to PFAS adsorption. Notably, MELEM‐COF, with cationic surfaces, exploits electrostatic and dipole interactions, with a 2500 mg g⁻¹adsorption capacity—surpassing all reported COFs to date. MELEM‐COF exhibits rapid exchange kinetics, reaching equilibrium within 30 min. These findings deepen the understanding of COF materials and promise avenues for refining COF‐based adsorption strategies.