Cremer Gilles, Danthine Sabine, Van Hoed Vera, Dombree Anne, Laveaux Anne-Sophie, Damblon Christian, Karoui Romdhane, Blecker Christophe
Laboratory of Food Science and Formulation, GxABT, University of Liege, Belgium.
Puratos NV, Groot-Bijgarden, Belgium.
Heliyon. 2023 Feb 10;9(2):e13604. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13604. eCollection 2023 Feb.
Hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) is a water-soluble polymer with many applications in food, pharmaceutical, medical, or paints industries. Past studies have reported that differences in functionality can occur between products of similar pharmaceutical grades. Understanding the origin of these differences is a major challenge for the industry. In this work, the structure and physico-chemical properties of several HPC samples of the same commercial grade were studied. Structural analysis by NMR and enzymatic hydrolysis were performed to study molar substitution and distribution of substituents along the polymer chain respectively. Water-polymer interactions, surface properties as well as rheological and thermal behavior were characterized to tentatively correlate them with the structure, and gain new insights into the structure-function relationship of this polymer. The differences in structure revealed between the samples affect their properties. The unexpected behavior of one sample was attributed to a more heterogeneous substitution pattern, with the coexistence of highly and weakly substituted regions along the same polymer chain. The more block-like distribution of substituents has a great effect on the clouding behavior and surface tension reduction ability of the polymer.
羟丙基纤维素（HPC）是一种水溶性聚合物，在食品、制药、医疗或涂料行业有许多应用。过去的研究报告称，类似药用级别的产品之间可能存在功能差异。了解这些差异的根源是该行业面临的一项重大挑战。在这项工作中，研究了同一商业级别的几种HPC样品的结构和物理化学性质。分别通过核磁共振（NMR）和酶促水解进行结构分析，以研究聚合物链上的摩尔取代度和取代基分布。对水-聚合物相互作用、表面性质以及流变学和热行为进行了表征，试图将它们与结构相关联，并深入了解这种聚合物的结构-功能关系。样品之间揭示的结构差异影响了它们的性质。一个样品的意外行为归因于更不均匀的取代模式，即沿着同一聚合物链同时存在高度取代和弱取代区域。取代基更呈块状的分布对聚合物的浊度行为和降低表面张力的能力有很大影响。
