Before telling you how to dissolve HPMC, we need to know there are two types of HPMC, and they are surface treated type( instant type) and Non-surface treated( hot soluble type). And there is no difference if you just look at it from the surface, but the biggest difference is the surface-treated HPMC could be dissolved in cold water, while the non-surface treated couldn’t, and if you add Non-surface treated HPMC into cold water, it will form lumps. And now let’s tell you how to dissolve HPMC. And you could watch the video as below
1.Three methods to dissolve Non-surface treated HPMC
as you know, there will be agglomeration formed if we add Non-surface treated HPMC into cold water, and it is very difficult and slow to dissolve it, so we suggest three different ways to dissolve for different application.
1) Hot water dissolution method:
Because HPMC doesn’t dissolve in hot water, while it starts to disperse in hot water, and will be dissolved when the temperature gets down, so we can dissolve it like this as below:
(1). All hot water dissolution:
Adding HPMC into hot water (over 80 degrees suggested). but please note that we need to add it gradually while keep stirring, then the HPMC will be dispersed in the hot water because it’s not being dissolved, so we need to keep stirring until it gets cooled, otherwise, the slurry will be uneven.
(2). Part hot water dissolution:
Adding HPMC into a little hot water(over 80 degrees suggested), of course, we need to keep stirring when adding HPMC gradually, then we add the rest but cold water into the solution, keep stirring until it cools down.
2).Dry- mixing method:
Put HPMC into other solid powder, then stir it well with a blender, then we just add water into the mixture, and this dissolution method is usually used by mortar and putty powder manufacturers. And lumping is not a concern since each particle of HPMC is distributed throughout the final product evenly.
2. Surface treated HPMC dissolution methods
Surface treated HPMC is a kind of HPMC developed to prevent lumping in wet blending applications such as detergent, paints, and emulsion-based applications. So all we need to do is just put the HPMC into the cold water while keep stirring for 1-2 hours, then we will get the dissolved solutions in the end.
By the way, when the surface treated HPMC is put into the cold water, it is just dispersed not disolved, so the liquid doesn’t have any viscosity at first, but the HPMC begins to dissolve after around 2 minutes, so the viscosity increases gradually until all the HPMC is dissolved.
