Rheological Properties of Lignocellulosic Nanomaterial Aqueous Suspensions as Influenced by Water-Soluble Biopolymer Additives

Rheological properties including gel strength, steady-state viscosity, and oscillatory rheology of four types of cellulose nanomaterials (CNMs) under the influence of two different biopolymers were studied. The processed CNMs had distinct fiber morphology (individual fibril vs bundles with/without lignin particles), composition (lignin content varying from 52.88% to 6.86%), and surface chemical properties (zeta potential values from -28.62 mV to -13.4 mV). The presence of lignin in lignin-containing nanofibrillated cellulose (LNFC) decreased a suspension's gel strength, viscosity, and dynamic modulus. The chosen bleached NFC contained large fibril bundles, and the processed material with more individualized fibril and enhanced fluid rheology was demonstrated after regrinding the original NFC. Biopolymer xanthan gum (XG) showed a much larger effect in modifying gel strength, viscosity, and dynamic moduli compared with polyanionic cellulose (PAC). Among the three chosen rheological models, the Nasiri-Ashrafizadeh model fitted the measured shear stress and shear rate data the best for each fluid system with correlation coefficients larger than 0.99. The use of biopolymers (e.g., XG and PAC) helped reduce negative effect of lignin on gel strength and other rheological properties for LNFC. The much-improved rheological performance for biopolymer-modified LNFC suspensions open new opportunities for CNMs to be used as more environmentally friendly fluids for the energy industry.