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thickening ability of Carbopol SC 800
I am making a baby shower gel formula using Carbopol SC 800 as a thickener. First, dissolve sodium benzoate in water and then add Carbopol SC 800. After dispersing, I see that the mixture is very liquid. But if I do the opposite, let carbopol disperse in water first, the resulting mixture is quite thick. And then add sodium benzoate, the system becomes liquid. I do the following steps, add SLES, CAPB… to complete the product, and the final system obtained has the required viscosity. So I want to ask, does Carbopol SC 800 need to be neutralized? And why is the initial dispersion liquid but the final product obtained is thick?
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3 Replies
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For what I read and for what you’ve experienced, yes, it needs to be neutralized. Now, since sodium benzoate is a basic salt, it will act as neutralizer of your carbopol, so it’s best not to add sodium benzoate at the start, but after the surfactants.
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I wonder if the mixture of carbopol and sodium benzoate is liquid like that, does carbopol act as a thickener?
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Carbopol is indeed the thickener, and as I mentioned, since sodium benzoate is a basic salt (by basic I mean its the product of the neutralization of a strong base and a weak acid), it will raise water pH and partially neutralize Carbopol, increasing viscosity.
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