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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Analysis and Specification of Starch Granule Size Distributions
Published on: March 4, 2021
QENS investigation of the dynamics of starch saccharides
M Di Bari1, A Deriu, G Albanese
1Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy.
Abstract:
We present here quasi-elastic neutron scattering results on D20 hydrated samples of amylose, one of the main saccharide components of starch. Two different sample hydrations (h = 0.5 and 1.0 g D2O (g dry amylose)-1 have been investigated in the temperature range 170 to 350 K. Below 260 K only an elastic contribution is present in the spectra, while a quasi-elastic component shows up above this temperature. The elastic incoherent structure factor (EISF) associated with this component changes considerably with increasing temperature. For the sample with hydration h = 0.5 the confinement volume increases by a factor of four in going from 300 to 350 K, and the proportion of hydrogen involved in the confined diffusion motion increases as well from 30 to 55%. Similar effects are observed at the higher hydration investigated. The observed dynamics can be associated with the known plasticising role of water in polysaccharides.
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