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How to remove bubble in gel?
Hi. Im making gel base but I noticed there is bubble in gel. My target is to get a thick and clear gel base. Below is my gel base formulation and I stir using overhead stirred around 70rpm.
A1 - Water (70%)
A2 - SLS (5%)
A3 - TEA (0.3%)B1 - Water (7%)
B2 - Repoly 100/Acrylates Copolymer (8%)My question is how to remove bubble from gel and is there any effect when add TEA? Thank you.
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6 Replies
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in the laboratory, it will be difficult to remove air bubbles from a thick gel.
I would Try to add the TEA at the end and after you stopped your Stirring for a few minutes and remove all the air out of the nonqualified carbomer solution.
After adding the TEA just stier very gental so that no air is incorporated.
you can buy special stirrers like Viscojet steerer they are designed to steer very well without air entrapment.
You can Try to put your Beaker under Vakkum in an Exicator overnight to see if you would be able to remove the air in the Production with Vakkum or not.
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Hi. Thanks for your reply and suggestions. Act I have tried to add TEA at the end. but the texture was clumped as you can see in the picture.
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As a DIYer I usually see that non-neutralized carbomer is used and then TEA added causing the liquid to jellify. The process produces much less bubbles.
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Hi. thanks for your reply. Act I don’t really understand. Do I need to neutralize the carbomer to get the clear gel or is TEA that causing the bubble in the gel. This is because when I don’t add TEA, i got clear gel without bubble but the appearance is blurry. Do you mind to explain more?
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the Carbomer will only build gel correctly if you get the Ph of your product above 6.0, yes sometimes the carbomer gets a little thick before. but the clear gel only is obtained by adding something that pushes the ph. Normally depending on the carbomer Triethanolamine is used ( TEA ? just thought it was that 🙂 ) Other Carbomers use NaOH to neutralize the Carbomer. Your supplier will give you the best neutralizing agent for the highest viscosity with his product.
A Clear Gel is only obtained after Neutralization. During this process, the air is easily entered in the formulation because the gel forms rather quickly and the air you have stirred in will not have the chance to separate form your formulation anymore.
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Wow. Such a great explanation. Thanks for your reply. I finally understand the key of carbomer. Appreciate that.
Btw, yes TEA is triethanolamine. 🙂
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