Temperature dependency of rheological properites of different dispersions containing microfibrillated cellulose

Abstract: Today, the focus lies on the state of the environment and how we can choose more sustainable alternatives to oil based materials. One material of interest is microfibrillated cellulose (MFC).The microfibril exhibits interesting properties, which one is its excellent barrier properties, that is expected to come in good use for the conversion to a more sustainable society. It is believed that the use of biobased barriers will increase with these new materials and MFC is showing promising results. But in order to develop the material to its full potential, it is important to investigate how MFC behaves in different situations, which can be examined with rheological measurements. The aim of the thesis is to examine how the rheological properties of suspensions containing MFC are affected by temperature and time storing and how the learning from this work can be used for influencing dispersion properties. Four samples were investigated, containing different amounts of MFC and modified waxy maize starch. The samples were analyzed with a dynamic rotational rheometer (Kinexus Pro +) with a splined cup and bob. The following steps were included in the method development used in this work: sample preparation, the repeatability, rest time and statistical analysis. An oscillatory shear and steady shear measurement was performed on the samples, and selected samples were studied with microscopy. The results show that the temperature has affected the samples. The shear viscosity of all samples decreased with increasing temperature and the samples followed the temperature dependence of Arrhenius' equation. For samples containing MFC, the structure was affected, and the initial viscosity was not recovered. The complex viscosity did also decrease at the beginning to then suggestively increase, creating a stronger network at higher temperatures. With the raised temperature the bonding between the fibrils became weaker, which in turn made the dispersion less viscous. Then, depending on the applied force, the shear viscosity and complex viscosity acted differently. To conclude, both the shear viscosity and the complex viscosity in these dispersions containing MFC are dependent on the temperature and time storing. By the learnings from this work, a method has been developed to understand how to use temperature and storing time to lower the shear viscosity and lower, or increase, the complex viscosity.