Camphene/polystyrene solutions: A rheological approach for material processing industry

Rheological properties of polymer–camphene solutions are very relevant as they affect their stability, and they have many implications in operation costs. This work elucidates the rheological properties of polystyrene (PS–camphene) solutions with industrial applications. Unfortunately, the assessment of the very low shear viscosities of camphene-based materials (below 0.005 Pa s) is still a challenge with commercial rheometers. Flow curves, stress growth tests, and small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) measurements were carried out as a function of PS concentration (0, 2.5, 5.0, 10, and 20 wt % PS) to understand the rheological behavior of these systems. Results indicate that liquid camphene has a shear-thinning behavior (flow index = 0.99) when the increase of polymer concentration involves changes in the structure of these systems (flow index = 0.10 for 20 wt % PS). An increase in PS concentration leads to a forwarding in the shear-thinning zone, and the Newtonian region (from ～1 s^?1, for 0 wt % PS, to 10^?3 s^?1 for 20 wt % PS). Eventually, these results evidence the high dependence of η_∞ on PS concentration (from ～1.16 ± 0.01 Pa s, for 0 wt % PS, to 631.5 ± 0.2 Pa s for 20 wt % PS). © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47953.