Shear and extensional rheology of selected polysaccharides

Abstract Rheology is used for the elucidation of the flow properties of polysaccharide solutions. For a given polysaccharide, both shear and extensional rheological experiments should be performed for the full characterisation of its flow properties. The provided information will facilitate the efficient exploitation of a polysaccharide in various applications. Although shear rheology is widely used in polysaccharides’ characterisation, there are only limited extensional rheology studies due to lack of reliable techniques in the formation of pure extensional flow. However, recently, several commercial extensional rheometers have been developed and thus, accurate extensional experiments can now be performed. The present work initially presents the principles and concepts of both shear and extensional rheology and then reports rheological findings for solutions of various polysaccharides and their derivatives. Xanthan and various members of the galactomannan, cellulose and alginate families were selected.