New Educational Resources from Malvern Provide a Valuable Grounding in Polymer Solution Characterization

Following the highly successful webinar series ‘Polymer solution characterization’, Malvern Instruments has released two new white papers that provide practical advice about characterizing polymers and measuring the rheology of polymer solutions. Seismic shifts in oil price, the sustainability agenda, and the desire for new smart materials have combined to produce a stimulating agenda for synthetic and natural polymer research. These papers offer straight forward guidance on how to measure the properties that can be manipulated to control polymer solution behavior and performance.

Polymers derive their commercial value from properties such as strength, stability and chemical resistance, and their ability to modify the behavior of suspension and solution based products. In ‘Characterizing polymers: Techniques for the measurement of molecular weight, molecular size and branching’, experts from Malvern provide an overview of the properties that define polymer performance which include molecular weight, molecular size and intrinsic viscosity. A key focus of this white paper is the different techniques that can be used to measure these properties and the value of gel permeation/size exclusion chromatography (GPC/SEC) within this context.

The second complementary white paper, ‘Measuring the rheology of polymer solutions’, provides an introduction to the unique rheological characteristics that polymers can exhibit when dispersed in a solvent. These are widely used to impart viscosity and viscoelasticity to products ranging from foods, drinks and personal care formulations to inks and drilling fluids. Measuring polymer solution rheology under relevant conditions is the key to successful formulation. The whitepaper discusses the rheological tools available for polymer solution characterization and how to apply them productively.

Either paper can be freely downloaded from: http://www.malvern.com/measuring-polymers and http://www.malvern.com/characterize-polymers.