Guar Ether

Overview

Guar is a hydrocolloid belonging to the polysaccharides family, extracted from the seeds of guar beans.Guar is a natural, renewable and environmental friendly resource.

Hydroxypropyl Guar (HPG), also called guar ether, 2-hydroxypropyl ether, gum guar 2-hydroxypropyl ether, and propoxylated, is formed by the etherification reaction with non-ionic propylene oxide reagent with guar gum. Hydroxypropyl Guar Gum is used as an inert ingredient as a thickener in pesticide formulations applied to growing crops. It is used as an indirect food additive and as a sizing agent in textiles and in papers.

Typical Properties

Good Workability

Guar gum ether shows a pseudoplastic rheological behavior: At low shear rate values, guar ether and cellulose are very close to each other, while, at high shear rate values, the viscosity of a solution of guar decreases more significantly. This lower viscosity gives the wet mortar good workability and a smooth surface.

Thus, guar improves the adhesion and the wet system’s stability without negatively influencing neither its consistency nor its water retention and showing excellent workability and a perfect finish.

Water Retention

Hydroxypropyl Guar Gum has excellent water retention properties due to adequate molar substitution. Water retention is considered the most important parameter in the construction application and helps in the binder’s better setting. It also reduces the effect of plastic shrinking.

Consistency

Guar ether improves the consistency of the mortar. This avoids the sagging of plaster and improves the resistance to tile sagging when applied on vertical walls.

Popular Applications

Construction&Paint Industry: Guar gum is widely used in many applications in construction &paint industry, such as water based paints, paste coatings, cement &gypsum based mortars, plaster, skim coat, tile adhesives, self-levelling compounds etc.

Slime: Slime is a pliable play gel composition comprised of certain guar gums, a cross-linking agent, and water in certain amounts to form a composition having exceptional gel cohesiveness and rheology resulting in a free flowing play gel exhibiting a novel texture and tactile feel character. The nature of the instant play gel enables the use of the guar based gel in a host of play patterns for children or adults which exploit its free flowing and pleasantly comfortable tactile feel characteristics.

Textile industry: sizing, finishing and printing.

Paper industry: improved sheet formation, folding and denser surface for printing

Explosives industry: as waterproofing agent mixed with ammonium nitrate, nitroglycerin, etc.

Pharmaceutical industry:  as binder or as disintegrator in tablets; main ingredient in some bulk-forming laxatives.

Cosmetics and toiletries industries:  thickener in toothpastes, conditioner in shampoos (usually in a chemically modified version)

Personal Care:  HPG may be used in bath products, hair conditioners, hair dyes, other hair care products and skin care products.