Comparative study of the self‐assembly and thermal properties of six commercial sucrose esters

In this study six sucrose esters (SEs) with varying mono‐ester content, and thus varying hydrophilic‐to‐lipophilic balance (HLB) were studied. Wide‐ and small‐angle X‐ray scattering (WAXS and SAXS) was performed in order to unravel the nanoscale assembly of SEs. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) allowed to identify the melting and crystallization peaks of the different SEs, which could be attributed to the low and high esterified sugar molecules. Moreover, the results show clear differences in melting and crystallization behavior based on the type of fatty acid chains present. WAXS analysis unraveled a hexagonal subcell for all studied SEs. Despite some difficulty in identifying low intensity SAXS peaks, the analysis suggests a cubic structure for low HLB esters and a lamellar packing for high HLB esters. Medium HLB esters are hypothesized to contain a combination of the aforementioned structures.