Intrinsic Viscosity of Aqueous Solutions of Carboxymethyl Guar in the Presence and in the Absence of Salt

Intrinsic viscosities were determined for solutions of CMG in pure water and 0.9 wt.-% aqueous NaCl. To avoid the 0/0-type extrapolation typical for Huggins plots, a new procedure was used. For CMG and pure water, this requires only two adjustable parameters: the specific hydrodynamic volume of the polymer in the limit of infinite dilution and a hydrodynamic interaction parameter. The intrinsic viscosity of CMG (no salt) at room temperature is 6 050 mL · g -1 ; approximately half as large as that of Na-PSS of comparable molar mass. The ratio of the intrinsic viscosities with and without salt is ≈7 for CMG, as compared to >100 for Na-PSS. The reasons for the different behaviors of the two types of polyelectrolytes are being discussed.