Small-angle neutron scattering of aggregated whey protein colloids with an exocellular polysaccharide

We have investigated the scattering properties of mixtures of aggregated-whey-protein colloid (AWC) particles and an exocellular polysaccharide (EPS) from a lactic acid bacterium. Exceeding a certain concentration leads to a phase separation, which can be explained by an effective depletion attraction between the AWCs due to non-adsorbing EPS. The measured scattering intensity of a AWC/EPS mixture shows that the structure factor of the AWC particles increases at low wave vectors with increasing EPS concentration. The measurements can be described qualitatively in terms of the structure factor, calculated using integral theory including an expression for the depletion interaction potential.