Change in Water-Holding Capacity in Mushroom with Temperature Analyzed by Flory-Rehner Theory

The change in water-holding capacity of mushroom with the temperature was interpreted using the Flory-Rehner theory for swelling of polymeric networks, extended with the Debye-Huckel theory for electrolytic interactions. The validity of these theories has been verified with independent sorption measurements. The change in water-holding capacity with temperature could be quantified as changes in three model parameters: the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter between the biopolymers and the aqueous solvent phase, the cross-link density of the network, and the biopolymer volume fraction at the relaxed state. The elastic pressure is analyzed using the Flory-Rehner theory, which is traditionally used to describe the swelling of polymers. From the explicit knowledge of the elastic pressure, we can determine how model parameters, such as the cross-link density, depend on temperature. We argue that the dependencies of model parameters can be understood as a consequence of protein denaturation. Having knowledge on how all contributions to the swelling pressure depend on temperature, and composition, we can compute the water-holding capacity of mushroom for a wide range of temperatures and mechanical loads.