DSC STUDY OF MELTING AND GLASS-TRANSITION IN GELATINS

In the range from -50-degrees to +130-degrees-C, the temperature dependence of the heat capacity for different kinds of gelatins with water contents of from 2 to 95% was studied by the DSC method. It was shown that, in all studied cases, metastable collagen-like structures are formed in gels or crystalline gelatins, with thermodynamic parameters depending on the formation conditions. The characteristic properties of the glass transitions in amorphous gelatins and crystalline gelatins with different melting heats and different contents of the ordered phase were established. Special attention is paid to the structural properties of free and bound water. The dependence of the glass transition temperature T(g) on the bound water content was shown to be of general applicability for many denatured biopolymers. Free water in gelatins, in distinction to the bound water, does not act as a plasticizer, but forms a rigid matrix inhibiting the glass transition.