Investigating the Mechanical Properties of Hydrogels Prepared from Food Waste: A Study Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The increasing amount of food waste and its sustainable management are gradually becoming global issues. The sustainable management of food waste has great potential benefits in terms of emission reduction and economic benefits. This study reports a novel environmentally friendly kitchen waste hydrogel synthesized from kitchen waste prepared from acrylamide, N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide, Urea, and sodium persulfate by free radical cross-linking polymerization. Further, the effects of single factors on the solubility and mechanical properties of the hydrogel were investigated. Additionally, using a response surface methodology, the combined effects of the three key experimental parameters-cross-linking agent, temperature, and initiator were investigated on the mechanical properties of the hydrogel. The results revealed that at 64.83 ℃, the elastic modulus of the hydrogel reached 277.61 Kpa. The cross-linking agent and modifier amounts were determined to be 0.122 and 4.669 g, respectively. Subsequently, the mechanical properties of the kitchen hydrogels were researched by investigating the experimental mode of interaction between the experiment and molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation results were consistent with the experimental data, acting as a reference for the in-depth study of other properties of the kitchen hydrogel system.