Semi-crystalline, water-insoluble
α-1,3-glucan, found naturally
in mushrooms, can be applied as a structuring material and is produced
industrially through enzymatic polymerization of sucrose as a sustainable
material. However, a basic understanding of its rheological properties
as a function of composition and processing is needed for many applications.
In this work, we find that rheological shear history and weight fraction
define the viscosity profiles, which can be further modeled using
a Cross model with common exponent m′ = 1.183
and characteristic relaxation time of C = 0.0772
s, confirming soft solid behavior typically observed for suspensions.
Relative viscosities, yield stress, and elastic and viscous moduli
show exponential growth with the skeletal volume fraction, ϕdry. Suspensions prepared with a polymer of varying polymerization
chain lengths, from 260 to 930 degrees of polymerization, show similar
rheology at the same wt % solids. These results and their parameterization
provide valuable information for the α-1,3-glucan product and
process design.