Characterization of Amylose Nanogels and Microgels Containing Ionic Polysaccharides.

We prepared and characterized amylose nanogels containing ionic polysaccharides which we used were 4--methyl-D-glucurono-D-xylan (GX), alginate, xanthan, and chitosan. Gelation under a shear force followed by a wet pulverization leads to the formation of hybrid nanogels. The resultant nanogels were characterized by particle size analysis, zeta-potential measurement and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Wet pulverization under a pressure of 200 MPa reduced the particle size of the gels from 20-26 μm to 240-670 nm. Zeta potential measurement showed that the ionic polysaccharides increased surface charges of the amylose gels. AFM observations showed the network consisting of submicron size amylose-polysaccharide nano fibrils. The fibrils containing GX were dispersed uniformly, while those containing only amylose were partly aggregated.