Making Nano-popcorn OR Fast structural transitions in poly saccharides probed with in-situ millisecond time-resolved micro-diffraction and

It is an accepted paradigm that biopolymers containing hydrogen-bond stabilized secondary structures (e.g. beta-pleated sheets) do not melt upon input of heat energy alone. However, recent developments in ultra-fast chip calorimetry have shown that under the right conditions such materials can reveal reversible crystal-to-melt transitions applying fast heating programs of several thousand Ks-1. In the proposed experiment, we are going to apply ultra-fast chip calorimetry in combination with millisecond timeresolved micro-diffraction directly recorded with fast pixel array detectors to address the structural response of starch (potato and tulip), chitin (shrimp) and saccharose on ultra-fast temperature changes insitu. Understanding the mechanisms of melting and crystallization of this group of polysaccharides will provide insights as to novel material processing technologies applicable to such natural polymers.