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Updated: May 25, 2026

Synthesis and Characterization of Supramolecular Colloids
Published on: April 22, 2016
Structural properties of colloidal complexes between condensed tannins and polysaccharide hyaluronan
Florent Carn1, Sylvain Guyot, Alain Baron
1Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes (MSC), UMR CNRS 7057, Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7, Bâtiment Condorcet, CC 7056, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France.
Abstract:
Interactions of plant tannins with polysaccharide hyaluronan are studied by means of light scattering and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). In this paper, we show that (1) the tannin-polysaccharide complexes remain stable in colloidal suspension; (2) the masses and structures of colloidal tannin-polysaccharide objects depend on the tannin degree of polymerization; and (3) the densities of tannin-polysaccharide aggregates are about 7 times lower than the density of a single solvated polysaccharide molecule. Short tannins and polysaccharides are aggregated in loose oligomeric structures whose sizes are comparable to a single polysaccharide molecule. Tannins longer than 10 nm and polysaccharides are aggregated in larger microgel-like particles whose sizes exceed 200 nm.
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