Cereal Chem 47:85 - 90.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Modification of Wheat Starch by Initiating Systems Used for Graft Polymerization.

G. F. Fanta, R. C. Burr, C. R. Russell, and C. E. Rist. Copyright 1970 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Treatment of wheat starch with ceric ammonium nitrate in dilute nitric acid or with ferrous ammonium sulfate-hydrogen peroxide, under conditions used for graft polymerization but in the absence of monomer, gave products only partially dispersible in 90:10 (by volume) dimethyl sulfoxide-water. With ceric ion- nitric acid, the amount and intrinsic viscosity of the dispersible fraction depended on both the degree of swelling of the starch (before treatment with ceric ammonium nitrate solution) and on whether the acidic reaction mixture was neutralized before isolation of the product. Dilute nitric acid in the absence of ceric ammonium nitrate gave a completely dispersible product whose intrinsic viscosity slowly decreased with reaction time. Electron beam irradiation of wheat starch also gave a completely dispersible and apparently degraded product. In contrast to their behavior in dimethyl sulfoxide-water, starches treated with ceric ion- nitric acid or the ferrous ion-hydrogen peroxide system were more readily dispersed in water than untreated wheat starch.