title: The physicochemical property characterization of agar acetate.
abstract: A series of agar acetates with different degree of substitution (DS) were prepared, and their properties were determined and analyzed. The results showed that the gelling temperature, the gel melting temperature, the gel strength, the gel hardness, the gel fracturability, the gel springiness and the solution apparent viscosity of agar acetates all decreased except that their gel cohesiveness increased with the increase of DS. The variation process of agar molecules in solution from coil to helix could be also observed by measuring solution optical rotation in a lower concentration at which even the solution could not form a gel. The gel skeleton structures of agar acetates were of porous network structures, and the pores became smaller and denser with the increase of DS. After acetylation, the water holding capacity of the agar was improved, but its thermal stability was lowered.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Jingkun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China. Electronic address: zhangxdqd@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: Agar acetate; Gel strength; Gelling temperature; Optical rotation; Thermal stability