The cationic guar （CG） is synthesized and the rheological behavior of aqueous solutions of CG in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate （SDS） is studied in detail. The steady viscosity measurements show that the zero shear viscosity enhancement can be almost 3 orders of magnitude as the concentration of SDS increases from 0 to 0.043%. The gel-like formation is observed as the concentration of SDS is greater than 0.016%. The oscillatory rheological measurements of CG solutions in the presence of SDS show that the crossover modulus is almost independent of the concentration of SDS whereas the apparent relaxation time increases swiftly upon increasing the concentration of SDS. The experimental results indicate that the strength rather than the number of the cross-links is greatly affected by SDS molecules. The mechanism concerning the effect of SDS upon the rheology of CG solutions can be coined by the two-stage model. Before the formation of cross-links at the critical concentration, the electrostatic interaction between SDS and cationic site of CG chains plays a key role and the SDS molecules bind to CG chains through the electrostatic interaction. After the formation of cross-links at the concentration greater than the critical concentration, the cooperative hydrophobic interaction become dominant and SDS molecules bind to the cross-links through the hydrophobic interaction. The theological behavior of aqueous solutions of CG in the presence of SDS is chiefly determined by the micelle-like cross-links between CG chains. In fact, the flow activation energy of CG solution, obtained from the temperature dependence of the apparent relaxation time, falls in the range of transferring a hydrophobic tail of SDS from the micelle to an aqueous environment.
The rheology of the cationic guar （CG） solution was measured and the effects of potassium oleate （KOA） upon the rheological properties of CG solution were studied. The steady shear viscosity measurement has shown that the viscosity of CG solution increased dramatically in the presence of KOA. The viscosity enhancement of KOA upon CG solution can be approximate three orders in magnitude. The gel-like formation of CG solution is observed at the high concentration of KOA. The excess addition of KOA results in the phase separation of CG solution. The oscillatory rheological measurement has shown that the crossover modulus Gc （corresponding to either storage modulus G＇ or loss modulus G＇＇ at the frequency wc where G＇ equals G＇＇） for CG solution, decreases with the increasing the concentration of KOA in solution. On the other hand, the apparent relaxation time 7-app （=1/wc） increases with increasing the concentration of KOA in solution. Our experimental results suggest that for surfaetant such as KOA which has a stronger tendency to form micelles in solution, the cooperative hydrophobic interaction of polymer bound to surfactants is less necessary to the formation of aggregates in solution, especially at the high concentration of surfactants. In fact, with the increase of the concentration of KOA, the number of the aggregates which associate polymer together decreases whereas the intensity of these aggregates increases. The effect of temperature upon the aggregation is also significant. With the increase of temperature, the number of the aggregates increases whereas the intensity of these aggregates decreases, probably because the ionization of KOA increases at high temperature.
The sol-gel transition of methylcellulose （MC） solution in the presence of NaCl and hexade- cyltrimethylammonium bromide （HTAB）, together with MC/NaCl solution in the presence of HTAB and MC/HATB solution in the presence of NaCl, was investigated by the rheological measurements. It has been found that the sol-gel transition temperature of MC solution decreases linearly with the concentration of NaCl in solution but increases linearly with the concentration of HTAB in solution, respectively. However, the sol-gel transition temperature of MC/NaCl solution in the presence of HTAB keeps the same value, independent of the concentration of HTAB in solution. On the other hand, the sol-gel transition temperature of MC/HTAB solution decreases linearly with the concentration of NaCl in solution. The experimental results suggest that, for MC/NaCl solution in the presence of HTAB, the salt- induced spherical micelles of HTAB should have formed in bulk solution. For MC solution in the absence of NaC1, no spherical micelles have been formed in bulk solution, though the concentration of HTAB in our experiment is almost one order of magnitude higher than the critical mieelle concentration of HTAB in polymer-free solution. In fact, due to adsorption of HTAB on MC chains, the realconcentration of HTAB in bulk solution, is much less than the apparent concentration of HTAB dissolved in MC solution.
