Tangible evidence of the tranformation from enthalpic to entropic gellan networks at high levels of co-solute

Transmission electron microscopy was employed to examine the hypothesis, reached earlier using theological and thermal analysis, of the changing nature of a polysaccharide network with increasing levels of sugar. Mixtures of deacylated gellan ( < 1%) with low (0-20%) and high (80-85%) levels of sugar were prepared. Micrographs of the high sugar/gellan gels produced clear evidence of reduced crosslinking in the polysaccharide network, which exhibits a transition from rubber to glass-like consistency upon cooling. (c) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.