Scanning probe acoustic microscopy of extruded starch materials: Direct visual evidence of starch crystal

Scanning probe acoustic microscopy (SPAM) has been successfully used to study inorganic and keratin biomaterials. However, few studies have attempted to apply SPAM to structural study of non-keratin organic materials such as starch based materials. This study investigated hardness and surface finish to establish sample preparation method suitable for SPAM imaging and acquired clear acoustic images of extruded starch materials. Acquired acoustic images directly exhibited certain structure of starch materials and provided visual evidence of starch material components and aggregates. In addition, through correlating acoustic images with X-ray diffraction data, crystal-structural information in nano-scale was obtained and acoustic image contrast showed a linear relationship with starch amylose content in extruded starch materials.