Non-isothermal crystallization kinetics study of multi-component oleogels

Abstract

In this study, the influence of non-isothermal conditions on multi-component oleogel (lecithin, LEC and ceramide, CER) was systematically investigated by rheological characterization, polarized light microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. Jeziorny and Mo models were applied to reveal the crystallization behavior. When the cooling rate increased, the LEC/CER oleogel exhibited lower G' and larger crystal size. The crystallization kinetics showed that at lower cooling rate, the LEC/CER co-assembled crystals grew at 2-3 dimensions by one step crystallization process. While at high cooling rate, the crystals first grew at 1-2 dimensions through self-assembly of CER. Then, the primary CER crystals served as nuclei for further co-assembly of CER/LEC growing in 2-3 dimensions. Our findings indicated that the cooling rate not only modulated the crystal structure and physical properties, but also the assembly mechanism of multi-component oleogels. Such information is useful for engineering the functional properties of oleogel-based lipidic materials.

Keywords: Ceramide; Lecithin; Multi-component oleogels; Non-isothermal crystallization kinetics.