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Molecular mass analysis of Carrageenans by Static light scattering (SLS) (CAT#: STEM-MB-0561-WXH)

Introduction

Carrageenans or carrageenins are a family of natural linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red edible seaweeds. Carrageenans are widely used in the food industry, for their gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties. Their main application is in dairy and meat products, due to their strong binding to food proteins. In recent years, carrageenans have emerged as a promising candidate in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications as they resemble native glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). They have been mainly used for tissue engineering, wound coverage and drug delivery.




Principle

Static light scattering is a technique in physical chemistry that measures the intensity of the scattered light to obtain the average molecular weight Mw of a macromolecule like a polymer or a protein in solution. Measurement of the scattering intensity at many angles allows calculation of the root mean square radius, also called the radius of gyration Rg. By measuring the scattering intensity for many samples of various concentrations, the second virial coefficient, A2, can be calculated.

Applications

The main applications of static light scattering is molecular mass determination of macromolecules, such as proteins and polymers, as it is possible to measure the molecular mass of proteins without any assumption about their shape.

Procedure

1. Sample preparation
2. Measurement by SLS instrument
3. Data analysis

Materials

• Right-Angle Light Scattering (RALS) Detector
• Low-Angle Light Scattering (LALS) Detector
• Hybrid RALS/LALS Detector
• Multi-Angle Light Scattering (MALS) Detector