Rheological properties of concentrated solutions of agarose in ionic liquid

The rheological properties of agarose solutions were examined under the effect of entanglement coupling between agarose chains. Agarose solutions were prepared by using an ionic liquid 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium chloride as a solvent. The concentration of agarose was varied from 1.1 × 10 1 –2.1 × 10 2 kg m −3 . The master curves of the angular frequency (ω) dependence of the storage modulus ( G ′) and the loss modulus ( G ″) showed a rubbery region in the middle ω region and a flow region at low ω region, respectively. The molecular weight between entanglements ( M e ) for agarose was calculated from the plateau modulus. Moreover, M e for agarose melt was determined to be 2.3 × 10 3 from the concentration dependence curve of M e . By using well‐known empirical relations in polymer rheology, information on molecular characteristics of sample agarose was derived. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012