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Blooming is commonly encountered in polymer additives such as stabilizers. Many polymers are essentially pure hydrocarbons whereas additives are often significantly more polar, this results their being forced out via hydrophobic forces. The blooming of additives may be desirable or undesirable. For example, the migration of antioxidants to the polymer surface may help it resist degradation. Conversely, the leaching of additives from packaging materials into foods, or the blooming of additives in biomedical devices is often of high concern. Regulations exist in many counties that require both the levels of blooming and the materials involved to be of a safe level, for example the international symbol for materials approved for food contact is a wine glass and a fork symbol.
polymer chemistry
Polymer chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that focuses on the structures of chemicals, chemical synthesis, and chemical and physical properties of polymers and macromolecules. The principles and methods used within polymer chemistry are ...
, materials science, and food science
Food science is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing the developm ...
, bloom refers to the migration of one component of a solid mixture to the surface of an article. The process is an example of phase separation
Phase separation is the creation of two distinct phases from a single homogeneous mixture. The most common type of phase separation is between two immiscible liquids, such as oil and water. Colloids are formed by phase separation, though n ...
or phase aggregation.
Materials science
Blooming is commonly encountered in polymer additives such as stabilizers. Many polymers are essentially pure hydrocarbons whereas additives are often significantly more polar, this results their being forced out via hydrophobic forces. The blooming of additives may be desirable or undesirable. For example, the migration of antioxidants to the polymer surface may help it resist degradation. Conversely, the leaching of additives from packaging materials into foods, or the blooming of additives in biomedical devices is often of high concern. Regulations exist in many counties that require both the levels of blooming and the materials involved to be of a safe level, for example the international symbol for materials approved for food contact is a wine glass and a fork symbol.
Sulfur bloom
Sulfur bloom refers to the migration ofsulfur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
, usually as S8, to the surface of a rubber article either before or after vulcanization
Vulcanization (British: Vulcanisation) is a range of processes for hardening rubbers. The term originally referred exclusively to the treatment of natural rubber with sulfur, which remains the most common practice. It has also grown to include ...
. Blooming is undesirable in rubber processing. When sulfur bloom appears before vulcanization, the rubber is deprived of the crosslinking agent. Sulfur bloom after vulcanization indicates incomplete vulcanization. In rubber processing, ingredients other than sulfur can "bloom", including antioxidants, fatty acids, and accelerators.
Food science
Chocolate bloom
{{main, Chocolate bloom Chocolate bloom refers two types of whitish coating that can appear on the surface of chocolate: fat bloom, caused by changes in the fat crystals in the chocolate; and sugar bloom, due to crystals formed by the action of moisture on the sugar. Chocolate that has "bloomed" remains edible but may have an unappetizing appearance and texture.See also
*Efflorescence
In chemistry, efflorescence (which means "to flower out" in French) is the migration of a salt to the surface of a porous material, where it forms a coating. The essential process involves the dissolving of an internally held salt in water, or ...
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