A good method for dissolving NaCMC in water is to first suspend the powder in a volatile non-solvent (e.g. acetone) and add the required amount of water while the suspension is being strongly stirred. You can then get rid of the Acetone by gentle heating.

Also, could you give some more details about it? The polymer concentration, grade and mixing method etc

Dear,Dr.  Carlos Gonzalez Lopez

Thank you for you response, the PH (1%)  5 - 7

High Viscosity 500 - 600 cps

Its surprising that it does not go into solution, 1wt% CMC should dissolve after a few hours of strong stirring. You could try as I suggested above to first disperse the polymer in  a volatile non-solvent and then add the water.  Alternatively, increasing the pH of the solvent can also help dissolution. Hope this helps.

Carlos 

Dear, Dr.  Carlos Gonzalez Lopez

Thank you for your kind help.

The solubility of CMC generally depends upon the degree of substitution of CMC itself. The low DS will have lower solubility whereas higher DS will have high DS. However, you can dissolve CMC by heating water at 60 C and stirring at very high speed.

Dear Prof Sidharth Gautam

Thank you for your valuable contribution

I tried to put CMC in water and stir it at 4°C over-night. I also tried to autoclave at 121°C for 20 min, but it doesn't dissolve...It remains turbid. This mornig i'll try to use a volatile non-solvent as acetone, but in my case i have to prepare an inoculum for conidia. Any other physical solution?

you can add alcohol before adding water into cmc, which is easy for mixing.

I used high shear homogenizer to dissolve NaCMC in water at ambient condition. It is very difficult to dissolve if you mix using magnetic stirrer.

If you have any Glycerin or Propylene glycol make dispersion of CMC or NaCMC in it & then add this dispersion into water slowly under high speed stirring.

I also had a problem initially, but I figure out that high vortexing for a couple of minutes in a 50ml falcon tube, followed by 2-3hr incubation on the rotator at room temperature works nicely to dissolve the powder. You can also incubate at 37 in the water bath for 5m before that. Good luck.

Siti Hajar Saharudin at what speed did you homogenize and for how long? I stirred 0.2% CMC solution overnight using magnetic stirrer but it was dispersed even at high temperature.

Hi Mehwish Nawaz ,

I dissolved 5% CMC and stirred using high shear homogenizer at 10000 rpm for 15-30 minutes with some intervals.

Mehwish Nawaz Hello, I used to work with 0.2% NaCMC in one of my tests for cellulase activity assay, I added water to a blender, then sprinkled my NaCMC all over the surface of water, closed the blender and put on high speed for 1min, I tried it with and without breaks during blending period, both produced homogenized and lumps-free NaCMC solution. Hope it helps!