"Weak gel"-type rheological properties of aqueous dispersions of nonaggregated kappa-carrageenan helices

The rheological properties of kappa-carrageenan helices dispersed in an aqueous medium, which prevents aggregation of helices, were investigated. A dispersion of 1.5% w/w nonaggregated kappa-carrageenan helices exhibited gel-like dynamic mechanical spectra at 20 degrees C; that is, the storage modulus G' predominated over the loss modulus G' ' in the entire frequency range examined (0.5-100 rad/s). However, the observed slight frequency dependence of the moduli and the relatively large value of tan delta (= G' '/G' > 0.1) were typical of so-called weak gels. The magnitude of G' of the kappa-carrageenan weak gels was less than that of conventional gels formed by 0.15% w/w kappa-carrageenan in an aggregating condition at 20 degrees C. Under large deformation, enough for the conventional gels to rupture, the weak gel systems flowed but never ruptured, suggesting that the weak gel-type rheological properties of the kappa-carrageenan dispersions were due to a sufficiently long relaxation time of topological entanglements among double-helical conformers but not due to the formation of a three-dimensionally percolated permanent network.