Makoto Hosotani

Composition and Flow Properties of Commercial Tissue Conditioners.

In this study, the relationship between the composition and the flow properties of three commercial tissue conditioners was investigated. Analysis of the composition was chiefly done by infrared spectroscopy (IR). As for the liquid, plasticizer was qualitatively determined and the content of alcohol was measured by distillation. The characteristics of polymer powders were obtained by means of gel permeation chromatography (GPC), particle size analyzer and SEM. As for the flow property, the apparent viscosity of a mixture of liquid and powder was measured by a cone and plate rotational viscometer.As a result, the liquid was a mixture of a phthalic ester plasticizer (dibutyl phthalate) with up to 13% ethyl alcohol. The polymer powders generally consisted of polyethyl methacrylate (PEMA), but one was a blend of PEMA and polyisobutyl methacrylate (iso-PBMA).The viscosities of mixtures were found to increase rapidly with an increase in the ethyl alcohol content, and an increase in temperature. Further, the viscosity curve of the tissue conditioner, of which the powder was a blend of PEMA and iso-PBMA, showed characteristic behavior. Thus it was suggested that the flow property of the tissue conditioner was affected by the molecular structure of the polymer powder.