Gelation of biopolymers in mixed aqueous solutions

There have been numerous systematic studies of model systems of mixed biopolymers describing the relationship between phase separation and gelation microstructure (Kasapis et al., 1993 Alevisopoulos et al., 1996 Alves et al., 2000 Loren et al., 1999 Bourriot et al., 1999 Loren and Hermansson, 2000 Butler, 2002 Lazaridou and Biliaderis, 2009). 

As a general principle, it is established that the gelation of one (or both) of the biopolymer components retards the process of phase separation and so leads to kinetically trapped microstructures (Bourriot et al., 1999 Butler and Butler-Heppenstall, 2003 Loren and Hermans son, 2000). 

1 There seems to be a sort of analogy here with the arrested phase separation of a protein-stabilized depletion-flocculated emulsion containing a thermodynamically incompatible hydrocolloid like xanthan gum (Moschakis et al., 2005 Dickinson, 2006b). 

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