Binary and Ternary Mixtures of Biopolymers and Water: Viscosity, Refractive Index, and Density

Abstract

Biopolymers have been the focus of intense research because of their wide applicability. The thermophysical properties of solutions containing biopolymers have fundamental importance for engineering calculations, as well as for thermal load calculations, energy expenditure, and development of new products. In this work, the thermophysical properties of binary and ternary solutions of carboxymethylcellulose and/or high methoxylation pectin and water at different temperatures have been investigated taking into consideration different biopolymer concentrations. The experimental data related to the thermophysical properties were correlated to obtain empirical models that can describe the temperature–concentration combined effect on the density, refractive index, and dynamic viscosity. From data obtained from the experiments, the density, refractive index, and dynamic viscosity increase with increasing biopolymer concentration and decrease with increasing temperature. The polynomial models showed a good fit to the experimental data and high correlation coefficients ($R^{2}\ge$ 0.98) for each studied system.