Carbomer is widely used in our daily chemicals and pharmaceuticals because of its many different characteristics. But do you really understand these characteristics? What are their advantages in these applications? The following will help you answer these questions. Let you understand more intuitively how our carbomer has a place in daily chemicals and pharmacy.
Carbomer's levitation
Carbomer can make the liquid system have a special yield value and rheology, and only a very low concentration can make some insoluble additives (particles, oil droplets, etc.) permanent suspension. It is precisely because of this strong suspending ability that carbomer is widely used to stabilize traditional emulsions and creams, oil droplets and water-insoluble matter in suspension solutions. Other thickeners are often not available. Very high thickening suspension power and yield value.
Rheology of Carbomer
Most carbomer gels have almost no rheology. When the carbomer gel is stressed, its viscosity will decrease immediately, but when the stress disappears, its viscosity will be restored immediately.
Carbomer sensitivity
Mechanical shearing-After carbomer is neutralized, long-term stirring or high-shear stirring will cause viscosity loss
The presence of ions-electrolyte will reduce thickening efficiency
·Ultraviolet rays--Long-term ultraviolet radiation will reduce the viscosity of the carbomer gel when pH>/=10, when exposed to ultraviolet rays
Carbomer insensitivity
·Temperature change--Carbomer gel is not affected by temperature
·Microorganisms-Carbomer does not support the growth of bacteria and mold, and the growth of bacteria and mold does not affect the gel properties. The conventional dosage is 0.2-0.4%, which can replace 3-7% of conventional emulsifiers. Carbomer polymer has almost no surfactant properties. Therefore, adding 0.1-0.5% surfactant with low HLB value can adjust the oil phase particles to be smaller to prepare white and delicate cream products.
Carbomer polymer emulsifier is better than general emulsifier
·Effective at a very low concentration-0.1-0.5%, replacing the traditional surfactant dosage of 3-7%
·Not restricted by HLB value and PlT
·Can emulsify any liquid oil at room temperature
·If the wax is melted during the manufacturing process, the wax can be emulsified
·Give full play to the wetting, dispersing, adhesion and other functions of surfactants to make stable emulsions
·It will not re-emulsify when rewetting, and it is easy to prepare waterproof emulsion without film forming agent
·The high oil phase can be dissolved in water to form (o/w) emulsion
Can be prepared: moisturizing creams, lotions, cleansing products, sunscreen products, non-alcoholic perfumes, fragrance hair conditioners (enhanced gloss, easy to comb), hand sanitizers, low-consistency sprayable emulsions and transparent microemulsions, etc. There are many methods to reduce the difficulty of carbomer in application. One method is to add carbomer to the oil phase system to slow down its swelling speed, the so-called indirect method, but it depends on the formulation. Carbomer is not very sensitive to changes in the addition process.
