Glass transition phenomena in molasses

Glass transition phenomena were investigated in molasses obtained from five Australian sugar mills. The transition temperatures (midpoint), Tg, ranged from −75 to −35 °C, while the change in heat capacity was from 0.68 to 0.84 J/g−1/°C. The five molasses varied in moisture, sugars and acidity, and this variation affected the Tg. The predicted Tg of the anhydrous form from the models of Fox, Pochan-Beatty-Hinman and Fried, and from a linear model shows that the molasses with the highest moisture gave the lowest transition temperature. The glass transition parameters of anhydrous sucrose, glucose and fructose did not accurately predict the transition temperatures of the molasses.