Effect of molecular weight on the ability of guar gum to enhance 'weak gel' rheology of microdispersed oxidised cellulose (MDOC)

Autor: Agoub A. Agoub, Xuehai Xie, Edwin R. Morris
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Carbohydrate Polymers. 169:393-397
ISSN: 0144-8617
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.04.039
Popis: MDOC comprises small, essentially insoluble, particles which associate to form “weak gel” networks at concentrations above ∼4 wt%. Association is promoted by guar gum, causing an increase in G′ at low levels of addition and a decrease at higher concentrations, due to excessive aggregation of the MDOC particles. For guar gum samples with molecular weights ranging from ∼60 to ∼1800 kDa, we found that the concentration required to give maximum G′ for 5 wt% dispersions of MDOC increased systematically from ∼0.005 wt% for the lowest molecular weight to ∼0.3 wt% for the highest. We propose that guar gum drives self-association of MDOC to reduce enthalpically-unfavourable (segregative) interactions between the two materials, and that large coils are less effective than smaller ones because a higher proportion of chain sequences are buried in the interior of the coil, where they cannot make segmental contacts with the MDOC particles.
Databáze: OpenAIRE