Electrolyte effects on amorphous and supercooled sugar systems

The purpose of the present work was to analyze the modification of sugar thermal transitions in the presence of salts. Solid systems consisted of freeze-dried solutions of trehalose or sucrose, with or without salts (potassium and magnesium chlorides, acetates or citrates at 5:1 sugar:salt molar ratio). The freeze-dried systems were humidified at water activities 0.22 and 0.43 at 25 °C and then incubated at 70 °C. The presence of electrolytes affected the kinetics of several relaxation phenomena in sugar systems. Trehalose and sucrose crystallization was delayed in systems containing salts and this effect was dependent on water–cation interactions and on the size of the anion, being citrate the most inhibiting anion. The delaying effect of ions on sugar crystallization correlated with the degree of changes observed in the asymmetry of the sugar melting peak, and with the magnitude of enthalpy relaxations. Salts decreased peak and onset temperatures of trehalose melting crystals and increased the difference between these temperatures compared to the system without salt. Systems containing potassium citrate and MgCl2 showed the highest Δcp, relaxation enthalpies in the amorphous state and crystallization delay, and reflected higher anomalies in trehalose melting behavior.