A DSC and NMR-relaxation study of the molecular mobility of water protons interacting with chemically modified starches

Changes in the mobility of water protons in the chemically modified starches (CMS)–water system are studied by differential scanning calorimetry and NMR relaxation. The amounts of unfrozen water at negative temperatures and additional (after gelation) unfrozen for CMS are lower than those for native starch. The proton spin–spin relaxation time T2 for CMS samples, conventionally attributed to the water fraction in starch granules, decreases monotonically with increasing temperature, whereas for native starch, this dependence exhibits an extreme behavior. Studying the dispersion dependences for 7 wt % gels, which characterize the rate of chemical exchange of water protons with protons of hydroxyl groups of polysaccharides, showed the absence of this kind of dependence for the CMS studied when the instrument operated at a frequency of 20 MHz. This data indicate the significant destructive changes in the structure of the CMS.