Investigation on concentration characteristics of ozone micro-bubbles fixed in ice and ozone gas released from ice

• Changing ozone gas into MB was important to attain high gas concentration in ice.
• Ozone MB concentration fixed in ice could be kept higher even after 1 week.
• Ozone gas concentration released from ice by melting varied lineally by surfactant.
• Releasing characteristics of ozone gases were quite different by adding surfactant.
• 57% of ozone MB concentration fixed in ice could be used for sterilization of foods.

Ice formed from water in which ozone gas is dissolved is promising for the cold storage of foods because of the ozone's sterilization and deodorization capabilities. However, effective dissolution of ozone gas in water and taking ozone gas into ice are not easy. Furthermore, the decomposition rate of the ozone itself is usually very fast, regardless of its phase. Thus, to effectively take ozone gas into ice, the authors have developed ice containing ozone micro-bubbles. In this paper, ice containing ozone micro-bubbles formed by adding surfactant was kept for a desired time at a desired constant temperature without melting of the ice. The concentration of ozone micro-bubbles fixed in ice and the ozone gas concentration released from ice by melting were measured to investigate the ozone decomposition rate due to fixation in ice and the characteristics of the released concentration. Furthermore, the influences of surfactant on both concentrations were examined.