Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.36, No.11, 1883-1890, 2013
Physical Characterization of a Commercial Suspoemulsion as a Reference for the Development of Suspoemulsions
Viscoelasticity, low shear flow, microstructure, and physical stability of a commercial suspoemulsion pesticide are studied to serve as a point of reference for the development of new suspoemulsions. Creep compliance tests allow the zero-shear rate viscosity, (0), to be calculated. As expected, the values of (0) decrease with temperature. The storage modulus is higher than the loss modulus until a crossover frequency, *, which is located at the lower frequencies studied. The dynamic parameters decrease with higher temperature and * increases in agreement with a faster relaxation mechanism. Multiple light scattering predicts the occurrence of a creaming destabilization process, whose kinetics depends on temperature. Rheological measurements are demonstrated to be a powerful tool to assist in the prediction of destabilization processes together with the multiple light scattering technique.