Unilever R& D Colworth, Sharnbrook, Bedford MK44 1LQ, UK; School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK.
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Jul 15;594:92-100. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.02.088. Epub 2021 Mar 9.
The aggregation of protein-stabilised emulsions leads to the formation of emulsion gels. These soft solids may be envisioned as droplet-filled matrices. Here however, it is assumed that protein-coated sub-micron droplets contribute to the network formation in a similar way to proteins. Emulsion gels are thus envisioned as composite networks made of proteins and droplets.
Emulsion gels with a wide range of composition are prepared and their viscoelasticity and frequency dependence are measured. Their rheological behaviours are then analysed and compared with the properties of pure gels presented in the first part of this study.
When the concentrations of droplets and protein are expressed as an effective volume fraction, the rheological behaviour of emulsion gels is shown to depend mostly on the total volume fraction, while the composition of the gel indicates its level of similarity with either pure droplet gels or pure protein gels. These results help to form an emerging picture of protein-stabilised emulsion gel as intermediate between droplet and protein gels. This justifies a posteriori the hypothesis of composite networks, and opens the road for the formulation of emulsion gels with fine-tuned rheology.
蛋白质稳定的乳液的聚集导致乳液凝胶的形成。这些软固体可以被设想为充满液滴的基质。然而，这里假设蛋白质涂覆的亚微米液滴以类似于蛋白质的方式有助于网络形成。因此，乳液凝胶被设想为由蛋白质和液滴组成的复合网络。
制备了具有广泛组成的乳液凝胶，并测量了它们的粘弹性和频率依赖性。然后分析它们的流变行为，并将其与本研究第一部分中呈现的纯凝胶的特性进行比较。
当液滴和蛋白质的浓度表示为有效体积分数时，乳液凝胶的流变行为主要取决于总体积分数，而凝胶的组成表明其与纯液滴凝胶或纯蛋白质凝胶的相似程度。这些结果有助于形成蛋白质稳定乳液凝胶作为液滴和蛋白质凝胶之间的中间物的新图像。这证明了复合网络假设的合理性，并为具有精细流变学的乳液凝胶的配方开辟了道路。
