Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose(CMC) Knowledge

1. What’s CMC?

Sodium CMC (also called Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose(CMC), Cellulose Gum; Abbr: SCMC, CMC) is one kind of sodium salt, widely used in the food industry, detergent industry, painting industry, paper making industry, pharmacy industry, ceramic industry, etc. Its physical property is an odorless, tasteless, non-toxic white powder or light-yellow fibrous in the pure state.

2.Chemical properties of CMC:

The most important thing is chemical property in CMC application because it can influence the stability, solubility, etc. of products a lot. The mainly chemical properties indicators of CMC are the viscosity, D.S (Degree of substitution) and purity.

CMC can be dissolved in hot water and cool water, its solution is alkaline or neutral. The solubility and viscosity of CMC solution depend on the D.S(Degree of Substitution) of CMC and PH of solution. It’s very hard to dissolve in water when the D.S <0.4, otherwise can be dissolved in water very well when the D.S >0.4.

And the solubility and viscosity of CMC both are very well when the D.S between 6.5-7.5. The viscosity of the 1% CMC solution is in the most stable state when the pH value between at 6.5-9.0.

The viscosity of the CMC solution will change during temperature changes. At the cooling environment, the viscosity will rebound, when the temperature rises to a certain extent, it will be in a stable lower viscosity state. The decline of the viscosity is relevant to its degree of D.S, the higher D.S, the CMC solution viscosity will lightly be affected by temperature.