Glass transition behaviour of fructose

Summary The glass transition temperature and the second transition (the endothermic change between the glass transition and melting temperatures) of fructose were studied. The thermal history strongly affected both transitions of fructose. Storage for 10 days at 22 °C increased the dynamic glass transition temperature from 16 to 25 °C and decreased the second transition of fructose from 110 to 98 °C in the first differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) scan. The amplitude of the second transition increased slightly with storage time and reached 260% of the first transition for vacuum oven dried samples. The effect of thermal history on the glass transition temperature of fructose can be removed by scanning the sample in a DSC to 130 °C. The effects of water content, glucose and sucrose on the two transitions were also investigated.