Manifestation of the size effect during crystallization and melting of dispersed water in native and amorphous starches with various degrees of hydration

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the melting and crystallization of frozen water dispersed in humid potato starch. Melting and crystallization temperatures and heats as functions of the degree of hydration of the starch were obtained for native and amorphous starch states. Manifestations of the size effect were observed in the dependences of heat for the processes in both starch states. Crystallization and melting heats of frozen water were found to change nonlinearly with the increasing degree of hydration in all cases. In contrast, a size effect in the dependences of melting and crystallization temperatures of frozen water was detected only for native starch. Reasons responsible for the absence of a size effect in the amorphous state were considered. Hysteresis, which is characteristic of small particles, was observed upon melting and crystallization of frozen water and its manifestation strongly differed in the native and amorphous states of potato starch.