Rheological studies on dispersions of uniform colloidal spheres I. Aqueous dispersions in steady shear flow

Abstract

Dispersions of uniform rigid spheres of diameters from 0.07 μ to 1.12 μ were prepared by emulsion polymerization of styrene and vinyl-toluene; their non-Newtonian viscosities were measured as functions of electrolyte level, surfactant content, and shear stress at volume fractions up to 0.50. Under certain experimentally defined conditions, these latexes obey a principle of corresponding rheological states η r = f( φ, τ r ), where η r is the relative viscosity, φ the volume fraction, and τ r = τa 3 kT is a dimensionless shear stress; τ is the actual shear stress, a the particle radius, k Boltzmann's constant, and T the absolute temperature.