Ion type-based formation rules and functional properties of polysaccharide-starch aerogels with chitooligosaccharide,...

Polysaccharide ion types may play a regulatory role in the functionalization development of starch-polysaccharide-based gels, although the relevant mechanisms remain to be elucidated. This study provides a simple and effective strategy for developing gels suitable for different adsorption scenarios by adding different ratios and ion types of polysaccharides. The addition of locust bean gum (LBG, neutral charge) and xanthan gum (XG, -/negative charge) increased the viscosity of wheat gels, with XG increasing more significantly at the same addition. Meanwhile, chito oligosaccharides (COS, +/positive charge) decreased the viscosity of wheat gels. SEM showed that the gels' pore size became larger after adding polysaccharides. FT-IR results showed that adding all three polysaccharides resulted in a more disordered structure and a decrease in the hardness of the gels. However, due to the different charges, the adsorption property results showed that adding the anionic polysaccharide XG increased the methylene blue adsorption capacity dramatically, while COS showed the opposite trend. The obtained results are expected to facilitate the high-value processing and utilization of polysaccharide resources and the on-demand construction of gel materials with promising textural or adsorption performance in food processing or industrial manufacture.