Viscosity sinergism of hydrozypropmethyl and carboxy methyl cellulose

Rheology modifiers are common constituents of food, cosmetic and pharmaceutic products. Often, by using two or more of them, better control of the product rheological properties can be achieved. In this work, rheological properties of hydroxypropymethyl cellulose (HPMC) and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (NaCMC) solutions of different concentrations were investigated and compared to the flow properties of 1% HPMC/NaCMC binary mixtures at various HPMC/NaCMC mass ratios. Solutions of HPMC and NaCMC were found to be pseudoplastic, where pseudoplasticity increases with increase in the macromolecules concentration. Changes of the degree of pseudoplasticity, n as well as the coefficient of consistency, K with the concentration are more pronounced in HPMC solutions when compared to the NaCMC ones. This is mostly due to the ability of HPMC molecules to associate with each other at concentrations above critical overlap concentration, c , and greater flexibility of macromolecular chains. Binary mixtures of HPMC/NaCMC were also found to be pseudoplastic. Experimentally obtained viscosities of the mixture were proved to be larger than theoretically expected ones, indicating viscosity synergism as a consequence of HPMC-NaCMC interaction. Maximum in synergy was observed when HPMC/NaCMC mass ratio was 0.4/0.6, no matter of the shear rate applied. On the other hand, it was found that relative positive deviation, RPD decreases when shear rate is increased.