Light Scattering and Electron Microscopic Characterization of Amylose Films

The anisotropic morphology of amylose films is described by solid-state light-scattering analysis. A wide range of supermolecular structures was found, varying from ``rodlike'' texture for water-cast films to ``ringed spherulitic'' texture for those cast from dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). After treatments, such as alcohol swelling or prolonged exposure at high relative humidity, the DMSO-cast films undergo significant textural modification which is best characterized by the observed changes in the scattering envelopes. Electron microscopy is, in general, in accord with these observations, although the advantage of the light-scattering method over electron and simple polarization microscopy for characterizing such systems is clearly shown.