Rupture Properties of Wheat Gluten in Simple Tension: The Role of Hydrogen Bonds

Gluten obtained from hard red winter wheat flour was freeze‐dried and reconstituted wth deuterium oxide and aqueous solutions of urea to selectively alter the extent of hydrogen bonding. The rupture properties of the modified glutens were studied in simple tension at seven rates of strain covering three orders of magnitude (2.86 × 10 ‐2 to 28.6 min ‐1 ). Tensile strength and rupture strain decreased steadily with the extent of hydrogen bonding disruption, i.e., with increase in urea concentration. For a given type of modified gluten, the strain at rupture was independent of the rate at which the material was deformed and the tensile strength increased with increasing deformation rate.