| Abstract [eng] |
Investigation of X-ray diffractometric analysis of crystalline fatty acids used in the food industry Elzė Saldžiūnaitė Chocolate production is a long process. One of its parts is pre-crystallization, or tempering, is a complex, time-consuming and good skills requiring process that seeks to obtain the required polymorphic form of chocolate. The main ingredient in chocolate is cocoa butter. During the experiment, the effect of the electric field on the cocoa butter tempering process was observed and investigated. All the equipment needed for tempering was made - a limited volume of two electrodes and a ceramic plate for the tempering material that is in direct contact with the Peltier tray element placed on a radiator that directs heat or cold from the lower surface of the Peltier element. And the radiator is ventilated from below. The Peltier element with platinum thermal resistors, which regulate the temperatures of the Peltier tray and the sample, is connected to a modulator that automatically modulates the current direction and current, depending on whether the sample needs to be heated or cooled and the required temperature. The signal from the modulator's standard communication device- interface- is transmitted to a computer, which displays that signal as a change in temperature over time. With the help of these devices, the tempering graphs of cocoa butter were obtained without the samples affected or not by the electric field of 0-6 kV. The tempering plots were successful, the tempering curves showed that tempering occurs when the samples were exposed to an electric field, up to 6 kV, at 6 due to the position of the thermocouple and the bending of the electric field lines tempering did not occur. The X-ray diffractograms of the samples were also measured with the samples affected and not by the electric field immediately and several days after the tempering process. The diffractograms show that the V polymorphic crystals in cocoa butter have been tempered, and the voltage interferes with the tempering process only at 6 kV by placing the thermocouple in the middle between the electrodes. |
