Light-activated Ag/Ag2S porous aerogel: Enabled by in-situ synthesis for efficient ethylene degradation and fruit preservation

A porous gelatin-gum/poly(lipoic acid) aerogel functioned as a structural skeleton. • In-situ synthesis achieved high-loading Ag/Ag 2 S with 95.27% encapsulation efficiency. • The composite aerogel enabled efficient synergistic ethylene adsorption and degradation. • Non-contact aerogel platform significantly extended the shelf life of various fruits. Postharvest spoilage of fruits, driven by ethylene-induced ripening and senescence, represents a major challenge to global food systems. Conventional ethylene control technologies, primarily relying on physical adsorption or chemical scavenging, struggle to simultaneously achieve high adsorption capacity and efficient catalytic degradation. Unlike physical blending or impregnation, this study developed a multifunctional aerogel by first constructing a porous, hydrophobic, and UV-barrier aerogel skeleton from a gelatin-gum (GG) complex cross-linked with poly(lipoic acid) (PLA), followed by the photocatalytic in-situ synthesis of uniformly dispersed Ag/Ag 2 S heterojunction nanoparticles, thereby achieving coupled adsorption-photocatalysis synergy at the nanoscale. Structural characterizations confirmed that Ag ions were partially reduced to metallic Ag within the gelatin-gum/poly(lipoic acid) (GG/PLA) skeleton under simulated sunlight, forming a uniformly dispersed Ag/Ag 2 S composite system. Performance evaluation revealed that the aerogel's three-dimensional porous network facilitated efficient ethylene diffusion and enrichment, while the Ag/Ag 2 S heterojunction promoted charge separation, enabling dynamic adsorption-photocatalysis synergy. Notably, at the PLA:Ag molar ratio of 1:1, the composite aerogel synergized its high ethylene adsorption with efficient photocatalytic activity, achieving approximately 95.21% ethylene removal within 24 h. It also demonstrated excellent thermal stability and encapsulation efficiency. Furthermore, applied as a non-contact platform, it effectively maintained the quality and extended the shelf life of both tomatoes and strawberries. This work establishes a design paradigm that couples ethylene adsorption with photocatalytic degradation for intelligent preservation. Download: Download high-res image (172KB) Download: Download full-size image