Sonocrystallization of Interesterified Soybean Oil: Effect of Saturation Level and Supercooling

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of supercooling and degree of saturation on lipid sonocrystallization under similar driving force of crystallization. Samples consisting of 100%, 50%, and 20% interesterified soybean oil (IESBO) diluted in high-oleic sunflower oil (HOSFO) were crystallized with and without high-intensity ultrasound (HIU). Two power levels were used by changing the amplitude of vibration of the tip (24 μm and 108 μm of tip amplitude). HIU operating at a frequency of 20 kHz was applied for 10 s. Sonication induced crystallization in the 100% IESBO sample and sonication power did not affect the results. A greater induction in crystallization was observed whenhigherpowerlevelswereusedinthe50%IESBOsample,whilenoeffectwasobservedinthecrystallizationkinetics of the 20% IESBO samples. Changes in the crystallization kinetics affected physical properties of the material, influencing elasticity. For example, sonication increased the elasticity of the 100% IESBO sample for both tip amplitudes from 435.9 ±173.3 Pa to 72735.0±9547.9 Pa for the nonsonicated and sonicated samples using 108 μm of amplitude, respectively. However, sonication only increased the elasticity in the 50% sample when used at the higher power level of 108 μm from 564.2 ± 175.2 Pa to 21774.0 ± 5694.9 Pa, and it did not affect the elasticity of the 20% IESBO samples. These results show that the level of saturation and the degree of supercooling affect sonication efficiency.