Synthesis and characterization of cationic guar gum: A high performance flocculating agent

Among various water-soluble polysaccharides, guar gum is one of the most important polysaccharide, which is having a wide variety of applications. By grafting a cationic moiety onto the backbone of guar gum, a modified naturally occurring polysaccharide can be developed, which used to be use as high performance flocculating agent and viscosifier (Singh et al.).(15) Various grades of cationic guar gums have been synthesized by varying the synthesis parameters. All these polysaccharides have been characterized by various characterization techniques, such as elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, intrinsic viscosity measurement, molecular weight determination, thermal analysis, and X-ray diffraction analysis. From all of these characterization studies, it has been confirmed that the cationic moiety has been grafted onto the backbone of polysaccharide. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.