Preparation of tamarind gum based soft ion gels having thixotropic properties

Tamarind gum was used to prepare ion gels using both synthetic ionic liquids (ILs) namely 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide and bio-based ionic liquids (Bio-ILs) namely choline acrylate, choline caproate and choline caprylate by heating cooling process. The gels were found to have good thermal stability and exhibited thixotropic behaviour. Upon relaxation after applied breaking strain, the recovery of gel structures after ten consecutive cycles was observed. The hydrogel of the gum prepared using ethanol aqueous solution had much inferior quality in terms of viscosity, viscoelasticity, thermal stability and thixotropicity when compared with the ion gels. The ion gels also showed very good adherence to human finger muscles and skin. The ion gels thus prepared may find application in electrochemistry, sensors, actuators and the gels prepared with Bio-ILs could even be useful in biomedical applications. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.