Rheological
properties including gel strength, steady-state viscosity,
and oscillatory rheology of four types of cellulose nanomaterials
(CNMs) under the influence of two different biopolymers were studied.
The processed CNMs had distinct fiber morphology (individual fibril
vs bundles with/without lignin particles), composition (lignin content
varying from 52.88% to 6.86%), and surface chemical properties (zeta
potential values from −28.62 mV to −13.4 mV). The presence
of lignin in lignin-containing nanofibrillated cellulose (LNFC) decreased
a suspension’s gel strength, viscosity, and dynamic modulus.
The chosen bleached NFC contained large fibril bundles, and the processed
material with more individualized fibril and enhanced fluid rheology
was demonstrated after regrinding the original NFC. Biopolymer xanthan
gum (XG) showed a much larger effect in modifying gel strength, viscosity,
and dynamic moduli compared with polyanionic cellulose (PAC). Among
the three chosen rheological models, the Nasiri–Ashrafizadeh
model fitted the measured shear stress and shear rate data the best
for each fluid system with correlation coefficients larger than 0.99.
The use of biopolymers (e.g., XG and PAC) helped reduce negative effect
of lignin on gel strength and other rheological properties for LNFC.
The much-improved rheological performance for biopolymer-modified
LNFC suspensions open new opportunities for CNMs to be used as more
environmentally friendly fluids for the energy industry.