Is plastic fat rheology governed by the fractal nature of the fat crystal network?
Authors:
- 1 August 1996
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society
- Vol. 73 (8) , 991-994
Abstract
The rheological properties of interesterified and noninteresterified butterfat‐canola oil blends do not seem to be strongly related to either solid fat content (SFC) or crystal polymorphic behavior, but rather to the microstructure of the fat crystal network. The microstructure of the fats was quantified by using fractal geometric relationships between the elastic moduli (G′) of the fats and their SFC values using the approach of Shih, W.H., W.Y. Shih, S.I. Kim, J. Liu, and I.A. Aksay [Phys. Rev. A 42:4772–4779 (1990))] for weak‐link regimes. Chemical interesterification decreased the fractal dimension of the fat crystal network from 2.46 to 2.15. We propose that fat microstructure, as quantified by a fractal dimensionality, could be modified to attain specific rheological properties.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Restructing butterfat through blending and chemical interesterification. 1. Melting behavior and triacylglycerol modificationsJournal of the American Oil Chemists' Society, 1996
- The fractal nature of fat crystal networksColloids and Surfaces, 1992
- Scaling behavior of the elastic properties of colloidal gelsPhysical Review A, 1990
- Fractal aggregatesAdvances in Colloid and Interface Science, 1987
- Mechanical properties of plastic-disperse systems at very small deformationsJournal of Colloid Science, 1961