Rheological properties of soy protein isolate solution for fibers and films

Abstract

For the first time, rheological behavior of soy protein isolate (SPI) solution with high concentration for fibers and films was studied. The results showed that SPI could be readily dissolved in urea/sodium sulfite aqueous system, and the SPI solution is suitable for wet spinning and film casting. The effects of concentration, temperature, and shear rates on the rheological properties of SPI solution were studied. Viscosity of SPI solution decreases with increasing temperature, which is good for the preparation of solution with high concentration and regenerated SPI fibers/films with good properties. All solution samples exhibited thixotropic behavior, which were different from traditional polymer solution for wet spinning and film casting process. Both in forward and backward measurements were carried out by the Power Law model. Under constant shear rates (80-160 s−1), 18 wt% SPI solution was chosen to study the dependence of viscosity on time. Second order structural kinetic model, Weltman model, first-order stress decay models with zero and none-zero equilibrium stress values were used to fit the rheological data. Among the four models, Weltman model is more appropriate to fit the thixotropic data.