Real structure of a partially crystalline maltodextrin gel as revealed by wide‐angle x‐ray scattering

In maltodextrin gels the junction zones of the network are microcrystalline domains consisting of polysaccharide chains. Such microcrystalline aggregates already exist in a 10% maltodextrin solution. If the degree of crystallinity rises above 10%, a gel is formed. In the 25% gel, 16% of the polysaccharide chains are involved in these junction zones. As calculated from the integral breadth of the peaks, the crystallite size of 17 nm is considerable smaller than the maximum dimension of 280 nm of the domains found by small‐angle X‐ray scattering. This discrepancy is caused by lattice distortions in the crystalline domains. Consequently, each domain is composed of microcrystallites.