Rheological properties of microfibrillar suspension of TEMPO-oxidized pulp

The rheology of cellulose microfibril suspensions from TEMPO-oxidized pulp was investigated. The suspension showed a pseudo-plastic and thixotropic behavior, slowly evolving with time under a given shear rate. The viscosity was proportional to the concentration up to the critical concentration of 0.23%. Above it, the viscosity followed a power law with exponents from 2 to 6 depending on the shear rate, and the system showed shear thinning behavior and behaved gel-like. Below this concentration, the system was more Newtonian. Birefringence measurement of 0.44% and 0.78% suspension showed that microfibrils alignment saturated at a small shear rate with a Herman’s orientation parameter below 0.65 probably due to the interconnection of microfibrils.