COMPLEMENTARY ASSOCIATIVE POLYMERS FOR RHEOLOGY CONTROL IN AQUEOUS FORMULATIONS
Ulysse Naessens, doctorant - PhD student Crédits : ESPCI ParisTechThis work presents the use of water-soluble, complementary associative polymers, a polyol and a polymer including phenylboronic acid moieties for the control of rheological properties of their mixtures.
Complementary moieties can form boronic esters, leading to interchain association in solution. Reversible gels can be obtained with polymer concentrations as low as 600 ppm. Temperature and pH influence boronic ester formation, and consequently association between functionalized polymers. Other parameters enable control of rheological properties by changing the structure of the network formed in solution, like the number of phenylboronic moieties on the functionalized polymer, or the proportion of both components in the mixtures.
Systems composed of different polymer components allow the study of relaxation dynamics, which feature a broad distribution of characteristic times.
This broad distribution can be explained by processes in which a variable number of dynamical interchain links are involved.
With these control parameters in mind, the use of these polymers mixtures as low concentration viscosity enhancers is considered.