Speaker:
Jeffrey Sanders, Principal Scientist

Abstract:
Starch is one of the most common biopolymers in food products and it’s interaction with other ingredients influences the overall physical and chemical characteristics, including nutrition and texture quality. Given the relative size of and complexity of starch polymers, traditional biophysical experiments lack the necessary resolution to study key nanostructure properties. Use of molecular dynamics simulations provides critical insight into the structural and dynamic properties of amorphous starch structures. Combining structural analyses with grand canonical Monte Carlo methods, the moisture uptake behavior is also explored along with it’s effects on thermophysical properties.