Novel techniques to optically characterize melt crystallization kinetics of high oleic sunflower oil based fatty acid mixture
- The rising applications of enriched unsaturated fatty acid fractions are significantly increasing the need for a cheap method of manufacturing such fractions. Melt crystallization is an established method for purification and enrichment of desired fractions from mixtures [1, 2, 3]. Enrichment of such natural unsaturated fractions by melt crystallization processes has already been proved effective in prior investigations [1, 2]. Since then many analytical and investigative methods have been applied on various natural plant oil based poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) mixtures to generate the much needed fundamental melt crystallization data [1]. One such method is the use of in-situ polarized light microscopy [1, 4, 5]. Some of the important parameters affecting the melt crystallization of PUFA mixtures are nucleation and crystal growth rate. To be able to observe and visualize these micro-scale phenomena, circular polarized transmitted light microscopy was applied. A tempered chamber (Linkam LS 120) containing the sample between twoThe rising applications of enriched unsaturated fatty acid fractions are significantly increasing the need for a cheap method of manufacturing such fractions. Melt crystallization is an established method for purification and enrichment of desired fractions from mixtures [1, 2, 3]. Enrichment of such natural unsaturated fractions by melt crystallization processes has already been proved effective in prior investigations [1, 2]. Since then many analytical and investigative methods have been applied on various natural plant oil based poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) mixtures to generate the much needed fundamental melt crystallization data [1]. One such method is the use of in-situ polarized light microscopy [1, 4, 5]. Some of the important parameters affecting the melt crystallization of PUFA mixtures are nucleation and crystal growth rate. To be able to observe and visualize these micro-scale phenomena, circular polarized transmitted light microscopy was applied. A tempered chamber (Linkam LS 120) containing the sample between two object slides was placed right within the microscope camera setup (Leica DM RME and Leica DFC 500) with a viewing window. With respect to the transmitted light, the sample was placed between two circular polarized filters such that the system is calibrated for optimal visualization. Unlike linear polarization, in this method every crystal independent of its alignment in the sample, delivers an interference color different from its background. This way, the entire crystal structure could be clearly separated from the melt. Nucleation and crystal growth rate of a high oleic sunflower oil based PUFA was measured using this method at 5K supercooling and 10K/min cooling rate. Growth curves for total crystal area and number of crystals were analyzed and illustrated graphically. A typical S- curve is observed for both the cases starting with a lag phase followed by an exponential growth phase and ending in a saturation phase.…
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