3.4.3. Electrical charge
Addition of calcium chloride to the MWP suspensions reduced the
magnitude of the negative charge on the particles (Table 1), which
can be attributed to binding of cationic calcium ions to anionic groups
on the particle surfaces (Barbut & Foegeding, 1993; Bryant &
McClements, 2000). A change in the charge on particleswould normally
be expected to alter their interactions and aggregation state. Our results
therefore suggest that electrostatic interactions are not strongly important
in determining the properties of theMWP suspensions used in this
work.