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Microstructure of fat crystallizing on a collagenous surface
Author(s) -
Rogers Michael A.,
Wright Amanda J.,
Marangoni Alejandro G.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
european journal of lipid science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.614
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1438-9312
pISSN - 1438-7697
DOI - 10.1002/ejlt.200501181
Subject(s) - crystallization , gelatin , nucleation , materials science , crystal (programming language) , chemical engineering , microstructure , crystal growth , crystallography , chemistry , composite material , organic chemistry , computer science , engineering , programming language
The effect of surface quality on fat crystallization was examined for glass and gelatin surfaces using three‐dimensional polarized light microscopy in an attempt to develop a model system for how fat may crystallize in arteries. A mixture of the high‐melting fraction of milk fat and triolein was crystallized from 60 °C to 30 °C at a rate of 0.5 °C/min on both glass and gelatin surfaces. Crystallization of fat on the gelatin surface led to an increase in the amount of nucleation and resulted in a more even distribution of crystal mass than crystallization on the glass surface. No evidence of crystal precipitation or glass surface crystallization was evident. We postulate that the gelatin acted as a template for nucleation. Similar trends were identified using fractal analysis. Fat crystallized on gelatin had a higher fractal dimension than fat crystallized on glass.