Waxy corn starch with 6–12 % moisture was degraded by gaseous hydrogen chloride (HCl_(g)) then characterized chromatographically and microscopically to investigate the relationship between moisture-resulting changes in unit chain properties of starch and its susceptibility to swelling. Starches with the highest degradation extents at different moisture content had recoveries of 76–83 % (w/w) and the weight-average degrees of polymerization of 66–93 anhydroglucose unit. Additionally, the HCl_(g)-degraded starches were still of birefringent granules but with internal cavity. When increasing the swelling temperature from 25 to 40 °C, some granules showed enlarged internal cavity, and some were fragmented. Change in granule morphology, accompanied by leaching of constituting polymers, was particularly evident for starch with preferential degradation of B₁ chains over B₂₊ chains as the moisture content decreased from 9 % to 6 %. These findings not only manifest the impact of changes in B₂₊ and B₁ chains on the swelling characteristic of HCl_(g)-degraded granules, but also demonstrate an approach for weakening the integrity of granules by selective degradation of amorphous matrices using HCl_(g).

用气态氯化氢 (HCl _(g) ) 降解含水量为 6-12% 的糯玉米淀粉，然后通过色谱和显微镜进行表征，以研究含水量导致的淀粉单元链特性变化与其溶胀敏感性之间的关系。在不同水分含量下降解程度最高的淀粉回收率为 76-83% (w/w)，脱水葡萄糖单元的重均聚合度为 66-93。另外，HCl _(g)降解的淀粉仍然是双折射颗粒，但具有内部空腔。当溶胀温度从25℃升高到40℃时，部分颗粒内腔增大，部分颗粒破碎。当水分含量从 9% 降低到 6% 时，颗粒形态的变化以及构成聚合物的浸出对于淀粉来说尤其明显，B ₁链比 B ₂₊链优先降解。这些发现不仅表明了 B ₂₊和 B ₁链的变化对 HCl _(g)降解颗粒的溶胀特性的影响，而且还证明了一种通过使用 HCl 选择性降解无定形基质来削弱颗粒完整性的方法_{。 g)} .