Raman Spectroscopic Determination of the Percent of Acetylation in Modified Wheat Starch

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy was developed as an analytical method for rapid determination of the degree of acetylation in chemically modified wheat starches. The carbon oxygen double bond stretch Raman peak (∼1732 cm⁻¹) of the modified wheat starches showed a linear relationship with acetylation over the range of 0 to 3.5% as determined from calibration plots with the standard titrimetric method currently used to measure acetylation of modified starches. The Raman spectroscopic method allows much faster determination of the degree of acetylation, is nondestructive, and has less problems with interference from impurities than currently used methods.

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Key Words:

• FT Raman spectroscopy
• acetylation
• modified starch
• starch esters