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Isolation and thermal characterization of high‐melting seed crystals formed during cocoa butter solidification
Author(s) -
Davis Thomas R.,
Dimick Paul S.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02661978
Subject(s) - melting point , seed crystal , materials science , crystal (programming language) , characterization (materials science) , melting temperature , thermal , chemistry , crystallography , single crystal , thermodynamics , nanotechnology , composite material , computer science , programming language , physics
Seed crystals which formed during early stages of cocoa butter solidification have been isolated and determined to have extremely high melting points. The melting points of the seed crystals generally exceeded 60°C, in contrast to cocoa butter, which melts between 30–35°C. In addition, the melting point of the seed crystals decreased as a function of crystal growth time. Evidence suggests that the high‐melting seed crystal is not an additional polymorphic form of cocoa butter, but rather a distinct crystalline entity. Consequently, a unique compositional make‐up is suspected as being responsible for the elevated melting point. A technique to separate seed crystals from the molten cocoa butter mass has been developed. The procedure has been shown not to alter the thermal and compositional properties of the isolated seed crystals.