Synthesis of Nano Fibrillated Cellulose blends and their Rheological Behavior using different mixing

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to reduce the viscosity of Nano fibrillated cellulose by mixing it with a non-ionic polymer such as poly vinyl alcohol and maintaining the dry solid content at the same level. An aqueous solution of poly vinyl alcohol was prepared and it was mixed with Nano fibrillated cellulose at three different concentrations. These were 0.08%, 0.1% and 0.12 %. The effect of different polymer concentrations on the rheology of Nano fibrillated cellulose was investigated. Modular compact rheometer 300 was used in order to obtain rheological data. Two different results were generated. The first one was the shear viscosity versus shear rate and the second one was the complex viscosity versus mixing time. Dispermat VL was used for the mixing of Nano fibrillated cellulose and polyvinyl alcohol. Two impellers with different geometry were used for mixing purpose. Double milling impeller was used with beads. 48 hours of mixing was carried out with dispersion impeller whereas for double milling impeller 5 hours mixing was used. An optical microscope was used in order to study the morphology of mixed samples. Obtained results showed that the viscosity of Nano fibrillated cellulose was reduced at all concentrations of poly vinyl alcohol where as an intermediate concentration of polyvinyl alcohol i.e., 0.1% was most effective compared to the other two concentrations. Moreover, mixing with dispersion impeller showed better results in terms of viscosity reduction as compared to double milling impeller.