Stress relaxation of particulate whey protein hydrogels
Yang B. Chen X.D. Mercadé-Prieto R.
September 2021Elsevier B.V.
Food Hydrocolloids
2021#118
The relaxation mechanics of hydrogels depend on how stresses are dissipated: through the polymeric network, through the flow of the entrapped solvent, or through both mechanisms. Particulate protein hydrogels, prepared from whey proteins at pH 7 and 0.1 M NaCl, were investigated using micro-relaxation tests to investigate the role of the microstructure. When deforming gels at high velocities (~400 μm/s), there is little relaxation during loading and the subsequent extensive relaxation is identified to be poroelastic by using different indenter sizes. The effective diffusivity and solvent permeability are estimated to be ~6×10−9 m2/s and 5×10−17 m2 respectively, which are one magnitude order larger than in protein hydrogels with a stranded microstructure. When indenting gels at low speeds (~20 μm/s), the poroelastic relaxation due to solvent flow occurs mostly during the loading step, and the subsequent relaxation is mostly viscoelastic in nature. Particulate protein gels, therefore, present two well identified and separated relaxation regimes.
Indentation velocity , Particulate hydrogel , Poroelasticity , Viscoelasticity , Whey protein
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Suzhou Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou City, 215123, Jiangsu, China
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan City, 010000, Kazakhstan
Suzhou Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Engineering
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
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