## 3 Results and Discussion
### Effects of the Grafting Degrees on the Physicochemical Properties of EWP
#### 3.2.4 The Emulsifying Properties of EWP Aerogels Changed with Grafting Degrees  
The emulsification characteristics of the aerogels with different grafting degrees are presented in Table 3. After blending with CMC-Na, the emulsifying activity and emulsion stability of EWP aerogel showed a significant increase (\(p<0.05\)) in general, probably due to the increased solubility of the conjugates, which was in agreement with the study by [PERSON] et al. [39], who investigated the functional behavior of soy protein-sodium alginate conjugates and ascribed the enhanced emulsification performance to their increased solubility. Notably, the emulsifying activity of EC\({}_{24}\) aerogels reached the maximum, whereas the emulsion stability continuously kept improving with the increase in grafting degree. 2.5 Effects of Grafting Degrees on the Oil Absorption Capacity (OAC) and Oil Holding Capacity (OHC) of EWP Aerogels  
The OAC and OHC of the aerogels are shown in Figure 5. All aerogels presented favorable oil-absorbing behavior, indicating that the aerogels maintained a well-structured network during the freeze-drying process without significant structural collapse. Moreover, the EC\({}_{12}\) aerogel had the significantly (\(p<0.05\)) highest OAC (\(5.46\) g/g aerogel), suggesting a better binding to soybean oil. In addition, conjugated aerogels with grafting degrees higher than \(8.35\%\) had relatively low oil absorption capacity, which was in agreement with the trend in the specific surface area values of aerogels that we measured previously. The higher OAC values in the presence of the EC\({}_{0}\) aerogels were probably based on the fact that the entrapment of oil within the aerogel would be determined not only by the physical structure of the polymer network, but also by its internal functional groups, which would influence the ability to bind the oil [6]. Overall, in comparison with EWP aerogel, the conjugated aerogels possessed remarkably higher oil holding capacity (\(\sim\)30%) values. This could be explained by the exposure of more hydrophobic groups of protein due to chemical cross-linking through the Maillard reaction with polysaccharide chains [60], which also made sense with the trend in aerogel emulsification properties that we investigated earlier. Theoretically, conjugated aerogels were exposed to more hydrophobic groups with increasing grafting degrees. However, the conjugated aerogels, especially EC\({}_{48}\) aerogels, presented lower OHCs compared with the EC\({}_{12}\) aerogels. This could be attributed to the \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Samples** & **S\({}_{\text{BET}}\)** & **V\({}_{\text{P}}\)** & **D\({}_{\text{A}}\)** \\  & **(m\({}^{2}\)/g)** & **(10\({}^{-3}\) cm\({}^{3}\)/g)** & **(nm)** \\ \hline EWP & \(0.54\pm 0.02\)1  & \(5.29\pm 0.13\)2  & \(36\pm 1\)2  \\ EC\({}_{0}\) & \(1.87\pm 0.02\)3  & \(9.13\pm 0.05\)2  & \(19.0\pm 0.3\)2  \\ EC\({}_{12}\) & \(2.59\pm 0.04\)3  & \(8.42\pm 0.08\)3  & \(13.0\pm 0.4\)3  \\ EC\({}_{24}\) & \(1.96\pm 0.04\)3  & \(8.11\pm 0.10\)3  & \(16.0\pm 0.3\)3  \\ EC\({}_{36}\) & \(1.75\pm 0.04\)3  & \(11.43\pm 0.07\)3  & \(25.0\pm 0.9\)3  \\ EC\({}_{48}\) & \(2.43\pm 0.05\)3  & \(9.18\pm 0.07\)3  \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Pore parameters of the sample aerogels: BET specific surface area (S\({}_{\text{BET}}\)), pore volumes (V\({}_{\text{P}}\)), and average pores diameter (D\({}_{\text{A}}\)). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Samples** & **Emulsifying Activity** & **Emulsion Stability (min)** \\  & **(m\({}^{2}\)/g)** & **(m\({}^{2}\)/g)** \\ \hline EWP & \(109\pm 1\)2  & \(34\pm 1\)3  \\ EC\({}_{0}\) & \(118\pm 3\)3  & \(36\pm 1\)3  \\ EC\({}_{12}\) & \(166\pm 3\)3  & \(42\pm 2\)3  \\ EC\({}_{24}\) & \(145\pm 3\)3  & \(40\pm 2\)3  \\ EC\({}_{36}\) & \(130\pm 4\)3  \\ EC\({}_{48}\) & \(124\pm 3\)3  & \(54\pm 3\)3  \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Emulsifying activity and emulsion stability of the aerogels.