Self-assembled pH-stable gellan/κ-carrageenan bigel: Rheological studies and viscosity prediction by neural network

The current study focused on analysing and predicting the effect of physicochemical parameters on the rheological properties of the novel polysaccharide-based bigel. This is the first study to report a bigel fabricated entirely from polysaccharides and develop a neural network to predict the modulation in its rheology. This bi-phasic gel had gellan and κ-carrageenan as the constitutive elements in the aqueous and the organic phase, respectively. Physicochemical studies revealed the influence of organogel in eliciting high mechanical strength and smooth surface morphology to the bigel. Furthermore, variation in physiochemical parameters indicated the bigel's inertness towards change in pH of the system. However, variation in temperature led to a noticeable change in the rheology of the bigel. It was observed that after gradual decline, the bigel regained its original viscosity as the temperature increased beyond 80 °C. Insights from this study can pave way for the development of highly-stable polysaccharide bigels.