Stress relaxation curves of pectin gels of 5.4-8.5% over the temperature range of about 9-25°C up to 2hr. have been obtained using a chainomatic balance relaxometer. Those curves were represented using a 6-elements mechanical model consisting of 3 Maxwell elements in parallel, and the following results are obtained.
1) The instantaneous elastic modulus, E0, and the elastic constant, E1, of the Maxwell element with the longest relaxation time, τ
1, are approximately proportional to C
1·7 and C
1·8, respectively, where C is (wt%) percentage of pectin.
2) An apparent activation energy obtained from the temperature dependence of τ
1 is a nearly constant value of about 7-8kcal/mol.
From the results described above, it may be said that the concentrated pectin gel which was experimented by this author has a constant three dimensional network structure independent of its concentration.
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