Abstract：
The controllable formation of anisotropic gel structures is presently sought for the development of foods with novel textures. Here, we used unidirectional freezing to generate agar gels consisting of a honeycomb-like porous network of elongated and aligned pores. A custom-built Peltier system allowed for control of the freezing front velocity throughout the agar gels. A higher freezing velocity (10 µm/s) led to smaller pore sizes compared to the slower freezing velocity tested (2 µm/s). Texture analysis highlighted the significantly higher Young\'s modulus in the gels when compressed in the axial vs. radial direction - a direct consequence of the unidirectional freezing. The proton spin-spin relaxation time revealed greater water mobility in the unidirectionally frozen gel with larger pores. This study serves as the basis for the development of anisotropic hydrocolloid gels with a tunable microstructure and texture.
摘要：
目前寻求各向异性凝胶结构的可控形成以开发具有新型质地的食品。这里,我们使用单向冷冻来产生琼脂凝胶，该凝胶由细长且对齐的孔的蜂窝状多孔网络组成。定制的Peltier系统允许控制整个琼脂凝胶的冷冻前沿速度。与测试的较慢的冷冻速度（2µm/s）相比，较高的冷冻速度（10µm/s）导致较小的孔径。纹理分析突出表明，当在轴向压缩时，凝胶中的杨氏模量明显高于径向-单向冻结的直接结果。质子自旋-自旋弛豫时间显示，在具有较大孔的单向冷冻凝胶中，水的迁移率更大。这项研究是开发具有可调微观结构和质地的各向异性水胶体凝胶的基础。
