Description of mutarotational kinetics in supercooled monosugars

Kinetics of mutarotation in supercooled, anhydrous D-fructose was followed by means of dielectric spectroscopy. We have noticed that structural relaxation of sugar is sensitive to the mutarotation process, thus it is possible to construct kinetic curve by plotting relaxation times of α relaxation as well as static permittivity versus time. Kinetics obtained from these two parameters is totally different. Sigmoidal shape of curve plotted from relaxation times at low temperatures is noted. In this article, we present probable explanation of this phenomenon. Moreover we perform tests of 2 kinetics models to properly describe sigmoidal curve. Finally, optical measurements were performed to verify dielectric spectroscopy as a method to monitor mutarotation.