Linear and non-linear viscoelastic behaviors of crosslinked tapioca starch/polysaccharide systems

Effects of polysaccharides on both the thickening performance and large deformation behavior of mixtures of various crosslinked tapioca starch and polysaccharide were investigated. It was found that the gelatinized crosslinked tapioca starch at 1-8% w/w in aqueous solutions behaved as swollen granules with the low-shear viscosity described by Krieger & Dougherty equation. To achieve thickening performance, 3.5% w/w starch was cooked with a range of 0.5% w/w polysaccharides, i.e. konjac glucomannan, guar gum, xanthan gum, and their 50:50 mixtures. It was shown that additions of polysaccharides greatly affected the rheological behavior of the suspensions, predominantly in the linear viscoelastic regime. The studied mixtures of starch and polysaccharides exhibited strong synergistic effects as evidenced from the increase in their consistency coefficients and the excess storage moduli calculated from the Palierne equation. Moreover, the mixtures containing xanthan gum showed weak-gel characteristics while the others demonstrated liquid-like behavior. In the non-linear viscoelastic analysis, arrangement of starch granules and specific interfacial interactions evidently affected the deformation behavior of the mixtures of crosslinked tapioca starch and polysaccharide. The mixture of konjac glucomannan and xanthan also largely improved stress susceptibility of the suspension and gave the unique shear stiffening under large amplitude oscillatory shear experiment.     

Synthesis of acrylamide‐co‐(itaconic acid) superabsorbent polymers and associated silica superabsorbent polymer composites

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) were synthesized from acrylamide (AM) and itaconic acid (IA) via a crosslinking polymerization. SAP composites (SAPCs) were formed by the incorporation of silica with three particle sizes into the polymerization to increase the gel strength of SAPs. Effects of AM: IA molar ratios, silica types and concentrations on water absorbency, absorbency rate and absorbency under loadings (AUL) of the composites were investigated. The highest water absorbency of the SAP is 233 ± 8 g g^?1 at an AM: IA molar ratio of 97:3 with absorbency of 149 ± 2 g g^?1 within 15 min. The highest AUL of the SAPC with 0.5%–2.0% w w^?1 silica is 13 g g^?1 by 1.93 × 10³ Pa load. A pseudo‐second‐order kinetics for water absorbency was found in both SAPs and in situ SAPCs. In situ SAPCs and the mechanically mixed SAPCs in vertical and horizontal direction yielded similar water absorbency values. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Physicochemical and rheological characteristics of commercial chili sauces as thickened by modified starch or modified starch/xanthan mixture

Physicochemical and rheological properties of various commercial chili sauces were characterised in this study. It was found that all studied sauces were acidic. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and colour staining experiments showed that the studied sauce could be categorised into two groups: one containing only starch and the others having both starch and xanthan within their ingredients. The rheological measurements showed that all sauces had a weak gel-like characteristic with strong shear thinning behaviour. In particular, the sauce with the weakest network contained only starch. Flow experimental data, fitted with the Herschel-Bulkley model, also revealed that the sauce with the lowest total solid content had undetectable yield stress, the lowest consistency coefficient, and the highest flow behaviour index, hence the weakest network structure amongst the studied sauces. The xanthan-starch mixture was shown to be beneficial as they could interact synergistically in acidic condition to enhance the gel-like characteristics and shear thinning behaviour of chili sauces.     

Synthesis and characterization of acrylamide‐based aluminum flocculant for turbidity reduction in wastewater

Polymeric flocculants of aluminum hydroxide‐poly[acrylamide‐co‐(acrylic acid)], AHAMAA, were prepared by solution polymerization using aluminum hydroxide as a coagulant in the presence of acrylamide (AM) and acrylic acid (AA) as a comonomer pair with N,N′‐methylenebisacrylamide as a crosslinking agent. The crosslinking was initiated by ammonium persulfate with N,N,N′,N′‐tetramethylethylenediamine as an initiator. The water absorbency of crosslinked poly[AM‐co‐AA] was always higher than that of AHAMAA and was found to be correlated to the storage modulus of the polymers, which was higher for AHAMAA than that of crosslinked poly[AM‐co‐AA]. The residual aluminum concentration of AHAMAA (0.09–0.2 mg L^?1) indicated the stability of the polymer flocculant which was in good agreement with the observed tan δ and the higher G′′ and G′ values. Both the crosslinked poly[AM‐co‐AA] and AHAMAA satisfactorily reduced the turbidity of kaolin suspensions, but the latter gave a better reduction performance. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Effects of cross-linked tapioca starches on batter viscosity and oil absorption in deep-fried breaded chicken strips

In this study, the effectiveness and feasibility of using various degrees of cross-linked tapioca starches in batter and breading formulations to reduce oil absorptions in deep fried chickens were investigated. Shear flow behaviour, water retention capacity (WRC), pick-up as well as cooked yield of the prepared batters were also examined. Flow curves showed that all studied batters were pseudoplastic, i.e. having shear thinning characteristics. In addition, it was found that the substitution of 20% (w/w) cross-linked starches for wheat flour in the batter formulation significantly reduced the consistency index and WRC of the batters. However, batter pick-up and cooked yield values were insignificantly affected. Oil uptake of fried chicken crusts was determined using differential scanning calorimetry due to its specific advantages over the conventional solvent extraction method. In comparison to the control (wheat) formulation, crusts of fried chicken samples obtained from the formulations containing 20% (w/w) cross-linked starch showed significantly lower oil content by at least 17% relative oil reduction. The highest relative oil reduction was found in the batter containing the highly cross-linked tapioca starch. Furthermore, an increase in water content in the batter formulations resulted in a reduction in the batter pick-up, cooked yield and oil absorption. The degree of cross-linking which in turn resulted in the limited starch granule disintegration is the predominant factor in the reduction of oil content for deep-fried battered food.     

Improvements of electromechanical properties of gelatin hydrogels by blending with nanowire polypyrrole: effects of electric field and temperature

Nanowire‐polypyrrole/gelatin hydrogels were fabricated by dispersion of nanowire‐polypyrrole into a gelatin aqueous solution followed by solvent casting. The electromechanical properties, thermal properties and deflection of pure gelatin hydrogel and nanowire‐polypyrrole/gelatin hydrogels were studied as functions of temperature, frequency and electric field strength. The 0.01%, 0.1%, 0.5%, 1% v/v nanowire‐polypyrrole/gelatin hydrogels and pure gelatin hydrogel possess storage modulus sensitivity values of 0.75, 1.04, 0.88, 0.99 and 0.46, respectively, at an electric field strength of 800 V mm^?1. The effect of temperature on the electromechanical properties of the pure gelatin hydrogel and nanowire‐polypyrrole/gelatin hydrogels was investigated between 30 and 80 °C; there are three regimes for the storage modulus behaviour. In deflection testing in a cantilever fixture, the dielectrophoresis force was determined and found to increase monotonically with electric field strength. The pure gelatin hydrogel shows the highest deflection angle and dielectrophoresis force at an electric field strength of 800 V mm^?1 relative to those of the nanowire‐polypyrrole/gelatin hydrogels. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Effect of Freezing Rate and Starch Granular Morphology on Ice Formation and Non-Freezable Water Content of Flour and Starch Gels

Ice formation and non-freezable water (W_NFW) of rice flour and tapioca starch gels were studied at two different freezing rates (–10 and –100°C/min) using differential scanning calorimetry. Ice crystal growth was observed in the slow freezing but not in the fast one. Ice melting enthalpies, however, were similar since more ice formed in holding and reheating steps. Melting enthalpy of fully gelatinized systems with water contents ~ 0.50–0.66 was associated to starch composition and granule morphology. Highly swollen tapioca starch gave the lowest enthalpy and the highest W_NFW (0.40 g/g dry starch versus 0.32 and 0.38 g/g dry starch of normal and waxy rice flours, respectively). The further studies revealed that the W_NFW values were associated to swelling power, solubility, and granule morphology.     

Effect of modified tapioca starch and xanthan gum on low temperature texture stability and dough viscoelasticity of a starch-based food gel

This work investigated the effect of modified tapioca starch and xanthan gum on dough viscoelasticity and texture stability during storage at 4 °C of starch sheets for Chinese shrimp dumplings. Hydroxypropylated starch and hydroxypropylated-crosslinked starch were used to substitute for tapioca starch in the control formulation, and xanthan gum was added to adjust the formulation. During storage, texture of the control became firmer due to amylopectin retrogradation confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction. Conversely, gel sheets containing modified starches showed less texture change. Dough viscoelasticity of the formulations substituted by hydroxypropylated starch were much softer and easier to deform than that of the control one. Dough with hydroxypropylated-crosslinked starch was, however, stiffer and more strain-resistant. Moreover, the formulation comprising the mixture of both types of modified starches and xanthan gum gave dough viscoelasticity similar to that of the control, and provided gel sheet the least texture change. Consequently, this modified formulation could be beneficial for the application of frozen/chilled dumpling wrappers.     

Unimodal and bimodal networks of physically crosslinked polyborodimethylsiloxane: viscoelastic and equibiaxial extension behaviors

Unimodal and bimodal networks of physically crosslinked polyborodimethylsiloxane (PBDMS) were prepared by end-linking hydroxy-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with boric acid. Their viscoelastic and equibiaxial extension behaviors were investigated. Three PDMS precursors with different number-average molecular weight ( M ¯ n $ {\overline{M}}_n $ ) were employed, of which the shortest chain had M ¯ n $ {\overline{M}}_n $ lower than the entanglement molecular weight. Bimodal networks were prepared from the mixture of the shortest and the longer PDMS chains. Linear viscoelastic behavior of unimodal network of the shortest chain gave the best fit to the Maxwell model with single relaxation time of 1.59 s, and equilibrium elastic modulus (G _e ) of the network was well-explained by phantom network model. The unimodal networks from the other two long chain precursors, however, showed multi-relaxation behavior with the longest relaxation times of 1.00–1.26 s. Moreover, their G _e was close to affine model and deviated from the phantom model with trapped entanglement factors of ~ 0.13. The bimodal networks with high mole percentage of short chains gave G _e values approximate to the predicted values of phantom model. Such bimodal networks showed an extremely large increase in modulus at high biaxial extension, attributed by the limited extensibilities of short chains and un-relaxed crosslinked junctions.