Development of Viscosity Increasing and/or Gelling Additives for Hydrophobic Fluids

Abstract

A low-molecular-weight gelling agent is an additive that forms a self-assembled structure in a solvent with a compound of molecular weight 1,000 or less to increase the viscosity or to gel the solvent. While there are many commercial water-based viscosity-increasing /gelling agents, the number of non-aqueous (hydrophobic fluid) products is remarkably small. Such additives are often discovered by chance. We believe, however, that it is necessary to proceed with development while aiming to establish guidelines for the molecular design of additives. In this paper, based on our research into pyromellitic acid tetracarboxamide, we introduce a series of studies including the molecular design of effective viscosity-increasing and/or gelling agents for hydrophobic fluids, and evaluate their rheological properties and the scale-up of reactions.