Glass transition of wheat gluten plasticized with water, glycerol, or sorbitol.

The glass transition temperature of wheat gluten, plasticized with water, glycerol, or sorbitol, has been studied using dynamical mechanical thermal analysis. For the three plasticizers studied, the general behavior of the glass transition temperature broadly followed the Couchman-Karasz relation using a wheat gluten DeltaC(p)() of 0.4 J g(-)(1) K(-)(1). Compared on such a fractional weight basis, it could be concluded that the plasticizing effect of glycerol and sorbitol on wheat gluten proteins is less important than the plasticizing effect of water. A continuous curve was obtained with the three plasticizers when the evolution of the glass transition temperature was presented on a fractional molecular basis. This was related to the similar chemical structure of these three components containing hydroxyl groups.