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Effects of pH on aggregation behavior of sodium lignosulfonate (NaLS) in concentrated solutions

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Abstract

Concentrated sodium lignosulfonate (NaLS) solutions have wide industrial applications. Therefore, their aggregation behavior at different pH (2.89–11.81) was investigated by means of rheology, conductivity, acid–base titration, and zeta potential measurements. It was found that all the NaLS solutions were pseudoplastic fluids. In the pH range of 2.89–10.34, higher pH resulted in increased viscosity, pseudoplasticity, and thixotropy. The dynamic viscoelastic measurements characterized by frequency and temperature sweeps showed that the storage modulus, loss modulus, and complex viscosity increased, but the loss tangent and the crossover temperature where storage modulus equaled loss modulus decreased with increasing pH. The change in rheological properties as a function of pH may be related to the molecular expansion effect. The conductivity, acid–base titration, and zeta potential measurements revealed the formation of a larger and higher-strength network structure at pH 2.89–10.34 as a result of the ionization of sulfonic, carboxyl, and phenolic hydroxyl groups. As the pH exceeded 10.34, NaLS solutions exhibited decreased viscosity, pseudoplasticity, thixotropy, and elasticity, and the aggregation effect weakened, which may be caused by the electrostatic repulsive forces becoming too strong and disruption of hydrogen bonds.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial supports of the International S & T Cooperation Program of China (2013DFA41670), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21476092), the Project 973 (2012CB215302), and Guangdong Province Science and Technology Major Project (2012A080105012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Qianqian Tang, Mingsong Zhou, Dongjie Yang & Xueqing Qiu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Mingsong Zhou, Dongjie Yang & Xueqing Qiu

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  1. Qianqian Tang
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  2. Mingsong Zhou
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Correspondence to Mingsong Zhou or Xueqing Qiu.

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Tang, Q., Zhou, M., Yang, D. et al. Effects of pH on aggregation behavior of sodium lignosulfonate (NaLS) in concentrated solutions. J Polym Res 22, 50 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-015-0689-3

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