Rheologic behavior of different hydrophylic gels

Abstract

The nature of polymers used in gel formulation may interfere in the rheological behavior and physical stability of the product, affecting the customer's acceptance. The rheology has been a great and important subject for cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, considering that the product consistence and spreading must be reproduced each lot, assuring the technological quality of the finished product. The purpose of this research was to settle the rheological behavior of different hydrophilic gels: two gels prepared with carbomers and one with acrylates crosspolymer. For this study a Cone and Plate rheometer was used. The studied formulations were stored at 25º and 40 ºC and the samples were analyzed between 1 and 28 days. High temperature influenced the physical stability of all gels; the gel prepared with acrylates crosspolymer presented the greatest pseudoplastic while the ones composed with carbomers presented higher thixotropy.