On the Gelatin Maturation Kinetics Described through the Storage Modulus

MARTA B. PEIROTTI; MARIEL L. OTTONE; MARÍA L. OLIVARES; JULIO A. DEIBER

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XXII Congreso Interamericano de Ingeniería Química y V Congreso Argentino de Ingeniería Química; 2006

A procedure to study the rheology of gel formation from gelatin solutions consists on measurements of the storage modulus as a function of frequency and maturation time, at given constant protein concentration and maturation temperature, which is below the critical gel temperature. Thus, from this type of rheological studies, one expects to obtain relevant information concerning the kinetics of the maturation process of these solutions. For physical gels, one approach to this problem is to relate the storage modulus to the fraction of free sites available to form the cross-linked network. This work is concerned with the analysis of the maturating curve for different gelatin concentrations in distilled water (2 to 8 %), temperatures (23 to 29 °C) and frequencies (0.1, 1, 10 and 50 rad s-1). Two different kinetic equations are compared in relation to the prediction of gelatin sol-gel maturation process.