Effects of cellulose diameter on the formation and rheological properties of edible walnut oleogels structured by cellulose nanofiber

Oleogel of edible vegetable oils structured by cellulose nanofiber (CNF) via emulsion-templated method has attracted many interests due to its potential substitute of saturated or trans-fats in food industry. The gelation mechanism of liquid oil is dominated by different intermolecular non-covalent interactions, while the type and strength of these interactions are greatly influenced by the structure and properties of the gelator factors. Here, the effect of different CNF diameter ranges (5–10 nm, 10–20 nm and 20–60 nm) was investigated for CNF-based walnut oil oleogels, under the same fiber length and surface carboxyl content of CNFs. The results showed that CNFs with diameters of