of about 100 eo units however for a hydrophobic lauryl group a chain length as short as about 20 eo units may be sufficient to exert a strong steric hindrance in an highly loaded aqueous methocel u00ae matrix as demonstrated by the excellent rapid setting efficiency of trycol u00ae 5964 an ethoxylated lauryl alcohol having a short 12 carbon alkyl chain plus 23 eo units this observation was also verified by the fact that trycol u00ae 6971 a bulky tail compound with 50 eo units produces a rapid setting effect very similar to carbowax u00ae 4600 about 100 eo units suggesting that a bulky tail compound with a short chain length can be as effective as a long chain compound without a bulky tail the effect of bulky tail groups was also shown in experiments comparing trycol u00ae 6971 with igepal u00ae co 990 also a bulky tail compound having a much longer tail of 100 eo units the much longer chain of the latter leads to a very high viscosity which results in a slower stiffening efficiency and poorer drainage than those of trycol u00ae 6971 however igepal u00ae still imparts a very significant room temperature stiffening effect on highly loaded.