The Opuntia genus of the cactus family is cultivated in different countries for alimentary and industrial purposes. This type of cactus is composed of flat joints with paddle-like cladodes or nopals, which are edible and contain multiple channels or conduits in its structure, these are filled with a branched high molecular weight polysaccharide known as mucilage (Trachtenberg & Mayer, 1981). The mucilage from nopal is constituted by a large variety of neutral sugars including fructose, glucose, d-xylose, l-rhamnose, l-arabinose, and d-galactose, among others, as well as by some acid sugars such as galacturonic, glucuronic, and uronic acids (Forni et al., 1994;McGarvie & Parolis, 1979, 1981aTrachtenberg & Mayer, 1981). The composition of sugars in the mucilage depends on certain factors such as the variety of the cladodes and their age (Ribeiro et al., 2010), as well as on the type and pH of the soil (McGarvie & Parolis,
The impact of additives on the rheological behavior of four associating water‐soluble multiblock polyelectrolytes previously synthesized via reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was described. These polyelectrolytes contained different number of blocks ranged from 1 to 7 divided into hydrophilic and hydrophobic. The rheological analyses of polymers were performed at 25°C at a given concentration (0.1–15 wt%) in the presence of sodium chloride (NaCl) 0.1–0.5 M, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) 2–10 mM or a mixture of both. Data demonstrated an increase in the viscosity of macroRAFT (ɳ = 0.002–9 Pa·s) and triblock copolymer‐TBC (ɳ = 0.003–0.04 Pa·s) versus the concentration of NaCl. Meanwhile, the viscosity of penta and heptablock copolymer exhibited a diminution whatever the (NaCl) used. Results from the rheological analyses of the associative polyelectrolytes at different (SDS) revealed that the viscosity of macroRAFT and triblock copolymer was kept constant in spite of the increment of the (SDS) while the viscosity of PBC and HBC displayed a pronounced diminution at the lower (SDS). Finally, the results from the rheological analyses of these polyelectrolytes versus a mixture of NaCl‐SDS showed a diminution in the viscosity of these solutions at any concentration of additives.
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