화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.117, No.3, 1290-1295, 2002
Stability of casein micelles in milk
Casein micelles in milk are proteinaceous colloidal particles and are essential for the production of flocculated and gelled products such as yogurt, cheese, and ice-cream. The colloidal stability of casein micelles is described here by a calculation of the pair potential, containing the essential contributions of brush repulsion, electrostatic repulsion, and van der Waals attraction. The parameters required are taken from the literature. The results are expressed by the second osmotic virial coefficient and are quite consistent with experimental findings. It appears that the stability is mainly attributable to a steric layer of kappa-casein, which can be described as a salted polyelectrolyte brush.