Shear and extensional investigations in solutions of grafted/ungrafted amylopectin and polyacrylamide

Various polysaccharides, such as starch and its constituent amylopectin, ar e used as flocculants in industrial effluent treatment. Grafting them with polyacrylamide branches enhances their flocculating and turbulent drag-redu cing characteristics drastically. Aqueous solutions of the graft, copolymer of amylopectin with polyacrylamide show a shear thinning non-Newtonian beh avior. It is also expected that the solutions exhibit extensional effects. When the aqueous solution at 1000 ppm was subjected to a stretching device, the formation of a thread and reduction of the thread diameter with time w ere observed. The extensional relaxation time was thus estimated and compar ed with that of polyacrylamide. The measured relaxation time indicates that the performance of the rigid branched amylopectin, when grafted with fewer and longer polyacrylamide branches, is overwhelmed by the grafted polyacry lamide chains and the reduction of rigidity by the grafting process itself. This article reports the details of the investigations that led to these c onclusions. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.