Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact that shear and composition have on the structural properties associated with the porous phases of lipids. To accomplish this aim, we developed eight main crystallized samples using cocoa butter (CB) or trilaurin (TL) in the presence or absence of monostearate (M) (5% w/w). The samples were sheared at 500 s−1 using random (RS) or laminar (LS) shear at a cooling rate of 2 °C/min. Using the maximal ball (MB) algorithm, several empirical void measurements such as connectivity (z), pore and throat volume weighted radii (R43), and void fraction (v) were quantified using 3D X-ray microcomputed tomography images. Most void features were identified as micropores (R ≥ 10 μm) possibly originating from the crystallization process and post-process crystal growth. Likewise, depending on the applied treatments, mechanisms impacting void formation were found to produce noticeable variation in v (0.019 to 0.139) and to determine whether void morphology was spherical, irregular, and/or highly connected.
Highlights
The nature of crystallized lipids is highly dependent on the treatments applied to them during and after crystallization
The results found in this study demonstrate that, as predicted, the morphology and quantity of the voids in crystallized lipids is greatly impacted by both the applied shear and the composition
The higher the void fraction of a material, the higher the connectivity that can be observed [47,55]. This phenomenon was not consistent across all samples produced here. This inconsistency was indicated by Overall, the results found in this study demonstrate that, as predicted, the morphology and quantity of the voids in crystallized lipids is greatly impacted by both the applied shear and the composition
Summary
The nature of crystallized lipids is highly dependent on the treatments applied to them during and after crystallization. By adjusting the shearing and cooling rates, or altering the composition, it is possible to engineer crystallized lipids with a variety of structural and thermodynamic properties [1,2] The manipulation of these parameters often affects the crystal aggregation and growth kinetics of lipids during crystallization, which may result in changes to crystal size and shape, polymorphic behavior, phase ratio, and chemical nature [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. The enhancement of these structural features inevitably helped to lower the diffusion and permeability coefficients of oil through the network, making the application of certain shears an ideal choice for engineering the structural properties of lipids for the minimization of mass transfer
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