A Comparison of the Effect of Temperature on the Rheological Properties of Diutan and Rhamsan Gum Aqueous Solutions

The rheological properties exhibited by gums make its use in applications interesting, such as foods, cosmetics, enhanced oil recovery, or constructions materials. Regardless of application field, the effect of temperature on these properties is of great importance, since these properties can be modified and cause the gum not to be useful for those conditions. Diutan and rhamsan gums are biopolymers, belonging to the sphingans, with similar structures which differ in the substituents of their side chains. It is known that both gums exhibit suitable viscoelastic properties and flow behavior when used as a stabilizer, gelling agent, or thickener. Both gums are widely used in food industry, personal care products, construction materials, oil operations, etc. For this reason, to know the effect of the temperature on their rheological properties is very helpful. For this purpose, small amplitude oscillatory shear measurements and flow curves, as a function of the temperature from 10 degrees C to 60 degrees C, have been performed, and the results obtained for both gums compared. The obtained results provide interesting information from an industrial point of view, since they reveal that the rheological properties remained almost unaltered in the temperature range assessed with diutan gum aqueous solutions, being slightly more viscous and viscoelastic than rhamsan gum solutions.