Pectin interactions with other biopolymers

The characteristics of the isolated biopolymers depend on their structure. Cellulose and amylose are linear polymers, whereas amylopectin, pectin and hemicelluloses are branched polymers. Pectin and amylopectin contain carboxylic groups, which make interactions with water molecules very important. Amylose has a helix structure, whereas the cellulose molecule looks like a ribbon. The interactions with water and other neighbouring molecules are therefore different. 

Other than cellulose, several polysaccharides such as alginate [201-203], chi-tin [204-206], chitosan [207], or pectin [208] have witnessed a dramatic evolution in the formation of silica-based composite materials with increasing textural control. A more systematic approach, designed to understand the composite s textural variability induced by the different polysaccharides, has been proposed by Shchipunov and Karpenko [209]. These authors have silicified a wide variety of polysaccharides using the same silica source, tetrakis(2-hydroxyethyl) orthosilicate (THEOS), whose water solubility allowed an expedite interaction with the selected biopolymer rendering diverse textures that can be directly attributed to different polysaccharides. 

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