Rheological Behavior Of Suspensions Research Articles

Design of Dispersing Processes Using a Newly Developed Dispermeter

AbstractTypically, the product fineness in a dispersion process is determined by the strength of the agglomerates and aggregates, the properties of the homogeneous phase and its interaction with the surface of the disperse phase, the stress mechanism itself as well as its intensity and frequency acting on the particles. The objective of this study is to characterize the efficiency of a dispersion process in terms of stress frequency and intensity using a newly developed dispersing machine called dispermeter. This dispersing machine is capable of processing suspensions with a broad range of viscosities. Furthermore, due to highly defined geometries, the rheological behavior of suspensions as an important parameter for processability and suspension stability can be characterized during the dispersion process. By utilizing the rheological properties the dispermeter can be used for the selection of an applicable electrostatic or steric stabilizer for an optimal dispersion process. With the dispermeter two different types of pyrogenic metallic oxide particles, nanosized alumina and silica, are processed. The progress in deagglomeration is monitored by particle size analysis and compared with that in a dissolver. A theoretical process model is used to characterize both processes. Moreover, this model is used to predict the dispersion results obtained in the dissolver.

Novel Quality by Design Tools for Concentrated Drug Suspensions: Surface Energy Profiling and the Fractal Concept of Flocculation

Quality by design is an important concept, but only limited research has been invested in concentrated pharmaceutical suspensions. A need exists for novel analytical tools to thoroughly characterize the drug as well as its aggregated particle structure in suspension. This work focuses on lipid-based pharmaceutical suspensions for filling of capsules. A rheological approach, namely the fractal concept of flocculation, is introduced to the pharmaceutical field. The model drug mebeverine hydrochloride was first physicochemically analyzed. A special aim was to study the surface energy profiles using inverse gas chromatography as a critical characteristic for the suspension's rheological behavior. Suspensions were manufactured in laboratory process equipment while applying different homogenization speeds. Flow curves of the final suspensions were measured using a cone-and-plate rheometer. As a result, surface energy profiles revealed differences from one mebeverine lot to another. Different homogenization intensities greatly affected the viscosity and the Mooney model was able to predict experimental values as a function of the drug volume fraction. The fractal concept of flocculation characterized mebeverine in suspension and a slight increase of fractal dimension was noted when homogenization speed was increased. It was concluded that the introduced concepts have large potential for designing quality into concentrated pharmaceutical suspensions.

Rheology of aqueous BeO suspension with NH4PAA as a dispersant

The effects of dispersant amount and solids loading on rheological behaviors of aqueous BeO suspensions were investigated. The relationship of viscosity and solids loading determined experimentally was compared with five various existing models. BeO aqueous suspensions exhibited a shear dependent behavior from shear thinning to shear thickening with the increasing of shear rate. The rheological behaviors of the suspensions are in reasonable accord with the model proposed by Liu, and are basically consistent with the Dabak model and Chong model, but are discrepant to other two models proposed by Krieger–Dougherty and Kitano. The maximum solids loading is estimated to be 0.577.

Rheological properties of suspensions containing cross-linked starch nanoparticles prepared by spray and vacuum freeze drying methods

The rheological behavior of suspensions containing vacuum freeze dried and spray dried starch nanoparticles was investigated to explore the effect of these two drying methods in producing starch nanoparticles which were synthesized using high pressure homogenization and mini-emulsion cross-linking technique. Suspensions containing 10% (w/w) spray dried and vacuum freeze dried nanoparticles were prepared. The continuous shear viscosity tests, temperature sweep tests, the frequency sweep and creep-recovery tests were carried out, respectively. The suspensions containing vacuum freeze dried nanoparticles showed higher apparent viscosity within shear rate range (0.1–100s−1) and temperature range (25–90°C). The suspensions containing vacuum freeze dried nanoparticles were found to have more shear thinning and less thixotropic behavior compared to those containing spray dried nanoparticles. In addition, the suspensions containing vacuum freeze dried particles had stronger elastic structure. However, the suspensions containing spray dried nanoparticles had more stiffness and greater tendency to recover from the deformation.

The Maximum Solid Loading and Viscosity Estimation of Ultra-Fine ZnO-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Mixed Powders Aqueous Suspensions

The rheological behavior of sub-micron zinc oxide and alumina mixture powders aqueous suspension has been investigated over a wide range of volumetric solids loading (Ø = 0.2–0.55), in which polyacrylic acid (PAA) was used as a dispersant. The dependence of relative viscosity (ηr)–solids loading (Ø) determined experimentally was compared with models. The experimental results showed that the suspension apparent viscosity (η) reached a minimum as the dispersant addition reached 0.2 wt%, the viscosity increased with the solids loading and the rheological behavior of the suspension was content basically with the model proposed by Liu. From ηr–Ø relationship the maximum solid loading (Øm) was estimated to be 0.55, which was in accord with our experimental results.

Flow Dichroism as a Reliable Method to Measure the Hydrodynamic Aspect Ratio of Gold Nanoparticles

Particle shape plays an important role in controlling the optical, magnetic, and mechanical properties of nanoparticle suspensions as well as nanocomposites. However, characterizing the size, shape, and the associated polydispersity of nanoparticles is not straightforward. Electron microscopy provides an accurate measurement of the geometric properties, but sample preparation can be laborious, and to obtain statistically relevant data many particles need to be analyzed separately. Moreover, when the particles are suspended in a fluid, it is important to measure their hydrodynamic properties, as they determine aspects such as diffusion and the rheological behavior of suspensions. Methods that evaluate the dynamics of nanoparticles such as light scattering and rheo-optical methods accurately provide these hydrodynamic properties, but do necessitate a sufficient optical response. In the present work, three different methods for characterizing nonspherical gold nanoparticles are critically compared, especially taking into account the complex optical response of these particles. The different methods are evaluated in terms of their versatility to asses size, shape, and polydispersity. Among these, the rheo-optical technique is shown to be the most reliable method to obtain hydrodynamic aspect ratio and polydispersity for nonspherical gold nanoparticles for two reasons. First, the use of the evolution of the orientation angle makes effects of polydispersity less important. Second, the use of an external flow field gives a mathematically more robust relation between particle motion and aspect ratio, especially for particles with relatively small aspect ratios.

Development and Fabrication of a New Concept Planar‐tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (PT‐SOFC)

AbstractThe paper reports a new concept of planar‐tubular solid oxide fuel cell (PT‐SOFC). Emphasis is on the fabrication of the required complex configuration of Ni‐yttria‐stabilised zirconia (YSZ) porous anode support by tert‐butyl alcohol (TBA) based gelcasting, particularly the effects of solid loading, amounts of monomers and dispersant on the rheological behaviour of suspension, the shrinkage of a wet gelcast green body upon drying, and the properties of final sample after sintering at 1350 °C and reduction from NiO‐YSZ to Ni‐YSZ. The results show that the gelcasting is a powerful method for preparation of the required complex configuration anode support. The anode support resulted from an optimised suspension with the solid loading of 25 vol% has uniform microstructure with 37% porosity, bending strength of 44 MPa and conductivity of 300 S cm—1 at 700 °C, meeting the requirements for an anode support of SOFC. Based on the as‐prepared anode support, PT‐SOFC single cell of Ni‐YSZ/YSZ/LSCF has been fabricated by slurry coating and co‐sintering technique. The cell peak power density reaches 63, 106 and 141 mW cm—2 at 700, 750 and 800 °C, respectively, using hydrogen as fuel and ambient air as oxidant.

Rheology of aqueous mullite–starch suspensions

One of the forming methods developed for the manufacture of porous materials by direct consolidation, in which a ceramic suspension consolidates into non-porous molds (e.g. metal molds) by thermogelation of an organic agent, uses starch as both consolidator/binder of the ceramic suspension and pore former at high temperature. Changes in the rheological behavior of the aqueous suspensions are produced by starch gelatinization thermal process. This process as well as the presence of both the ceramic particles and added processing additives, influences the kinetics of green ceramic body formation and its microstructural features. In this work, the thermogelling behavior of mullite aqueous suspensions (40 vol.%; 0.45 wt.% of a polyacrylic polyelectrolyte as dispersant) containing 10 vol.% of different native starches (potato, cassava, and corn) was studied by dynamic rheology in order to determine the experimental conditions that must be used for forming mullite green bodies by thermal consolidation. Viscoelastic properties ( G′ and G″) as a function of temperature (30–95 °C) and deformation (0.1–625.0% at 40 °C) were determined by temperature sweep tests and dynamic strain sweep tests, respectively. From these tests, and considering previous results of the rheological behavior of starch suspensions, we analyzed the influence of ceramic particles on the starch gelatinization process and the strength of the developed gels. On the other hand, shear flow properties of aqueous mullite–starch suspensions were also analyzed to obtain information on the rheological behavior of the suspensions at room temperature.

Electrorheological Suspensions of Laponite in Oil: Rheometry Studies

We have studied the effect of an external direct current (DC) electric field ( approximately 1 kV/mm) on the rheological properties of colloidal suspensions consisting of aggregates of laponite particles in a silicone oil. Microscopy observations show that, under application of an electric field greater than a triggering electric field Ec approximately 0.6 kV/mm, laponite aggregates assemble into chain- and/or columnlike structures in the oil. Without an applied electric field, the steady-state shear behavior of such suspensions is Newtonian-like. Under application of an electric field larger than Ec, it changes dramatically as a result of the changes in the microstructure: a significant yield stress is measured, and under continuous shear the fluid is shear-thinning. The rheological properties, in particular the dynamic and static shear stress, were studied as a function of particle volume fraction for various strengths (including null) of the applied electric field. The flow curves at constant shear rate can be scaled with respect to both the particle fraction and electric field strength onto a master curve. This scaling is consistent with simple scaling arguments. The shape of the master curve accounts for the system's complexity; it approaches a standard power-law model at high Mason numbers. Both dynamic and static yield stresses are observed to depend on the particle fraction Phi and electric field E as PhibetaEalpha, with alpha approximately 1.85 and beta approximately 1 and 1.70 for the dynamic and static yield stresses, respectively. The yield stress was also determined as the critical stress at which there occurs a bifurcation in the rheological behavior of suspensions that are submitted to a constant shear stress; a scaling law with alpha approximately 1.84 and beta approximately 1.70 was obtained. The effectiveness of the latter technique confirms that such electrorheological (ER) fluids can be studied in the framework of thixotropic fluids. The method is very reproducible; we suggest that it could be used routinely for studying ER fluids. The measured overall yield stress behavior of the suspensions may be explained in terms of standard conduction models for electrorheological systems. Interesting prospects include using such systems for guided self-assembly of clay nanoparticles.

Rheological Behavior of Alumina Aqueous Suspension for Extrusion Gelation Freeform Fabrication

Extrusion gelation freeform fabrication (EGFF) is a new solid freeform fabrication technique to fabricate ceramic parts. The study of ceramic suspensions rheological behavior is essential to a better understanding of parts fabrication through EGFF process. In this paper, the effects of dispersant concentrations, solids loading and binder composition on the rheological behavior of alumina suspensions were examined. The optimal amount of dispersant was found to be about 0.1 wt.%. The suspensions with 50 vol.% alumina and 1wt.% sodium alginate show shear thickening behavior. Such behavior is unfavorable for extrusion gelation freeform fabrication. By addition of PVA or styrene-acrylic latex, the rheological behavior of suspensions was changed. The addition of PVA or latex has a great effect on the viscosity of the suspensions and the type of their rheological behavior. The ceramic suspensions with PVA or latex were found to be shear thinning more suitable for EGFF.

Rheological Behaviors of Alumina Aqueous Suspensions

Rheological behaviors of alumina aqueous suspension were investigated, and some methods to modify the rheological behaviors of the suspensions were studied. It was found that there is a critical solid volume fraction for alumina aqueous suspensions. When the volume fraction reaches or exceeds the critical value the suspensions show shear thinning behaviors all along, while above which the rheological behaviors of alumina suspensions change from shear thinning to shear thickening.

ポリマーの分子量がアルミナ懸濁液のレオロジカルな性質とグリーンシート特性に及ぼす影響

Effect of molecular weight of acrylic polymers on alumina suspension and alumina green sheet was investigated. The polymers used in the present work were butyl methacrylate-methacrylic acid copolymers. Weight-average molecular weight (Mw) of polymers were 2.4, 5.5, 11.0 and 19.1 (×104) respectively. The average diamater of 2 types of alumina particles were 0.6, 2.0μm. The suspensions of alumina particles were well dispersed by using the polymers. In the case of 0.6μm alumina, the suspension prepared by Mw: 2.4×104 polymer was most dispersed, however, cracking happened during the drying process. It was found that the cracking caused by less stress relaxation by oscillatory measurement of suspension. Judging from rheological behavior of suspensions, cracking during drying and properties of green sheets, polymers of more than 10×104Mw were suitable for forming alumina green sheets.

The rheological behavior and surface charging of gelcasting alumina suspensions

Aim of this work is to investigate the effect of monomers containing either carboxylate (ammonium acrylate) or acrylamide (hydroxymethylacrylamide) functional groups on the surface charging and rheological behavior of alumina suspensions. The rheological behavior was investigated by changing the concentrations of dispersant (ammonium polyacrylate) and monomers in the suspensions. The zeta potential of alumina suspensions containing each of the different monomers was measured as a function of dispersant additions. The suspension rheological behavior varied significantly depending on the monomer type, which could be explained in terms of repulsive forces, pH changes and additive interactions.

First Studies on the Rheological Behavior of Suspensions in Ionic Liquids

The suspension rheology of hematite in the ionic liquid EcoengTM.212 was studied in detail and compared to the pure ionic liquid. This is the first report on the rheological behavior of suspensions in ionic liquids, and it is postulated that colloidal stability and rheology must be considered to understand these results, and to overcome limitations on the production of nanosized particles in industrial applications. Concentrated suspensions of particles in the nanometer range show non-Newtonian flow behavior including shear thinning and shear thickening. These phenomena are mainly caused by particle-particle interactions in the suspension, and control of these interactions is critical. The influences of temperature and solid concentration on flow behavior were shown for the pure liquid and the suspensions. It is seen that the ionic liquid follows the Arrhenius equation for non-associating electrolytes. It is possible to shift all hematite suspension curves to a master curve according to the model of Gleißle and Baloch. Furthermore, the flow behavior of the suspensions can be modeled with the well-known Herschel-Bulkley plot. A 10 wt % suspension of Fe2O3 follows Newtonian behavior over the entire range, similar to the pure ionic liquid. It is believed that the ionic liquid has an influence on the stability of the particles, leading to a decrease of attractive particle-particle forces.

Rheology of Concentrated Suspensions Containing Weakly Attractive Alumina Nanoparticles

The use of nanoparticles for the fabrication of new functional ceramics and composites often requires the preparation of concentrated fluid suspensions. However, suspensions containing nanoparticles are limited in solids content because of the excluded volume formed by the dispersant adlayer around the particles. We investigated the effect of the adlayer thickness on the rheological behavior of suspensions containing model alumina nanoparticles, using dispersant molecules with deliberately tailored chain length. The apparent viscosity and yield stress of the particle suspensions were markedly decreased by increasing the dispersant length, mainly due to a reduction of the attractive forces among particles. Fluid suspensions with solids content up to 35 vol% were prepared in toluene using a dispersant length of 2.5 nm. Our experimental results and viscosity predictions based on a hard sphere model indicate that fluid suspensions with up to 43 vol% of 65 nm alumina particles could be prepared using an optimum dispersant length of about 3.6 nm.

Production of Al-rich sludge-containing ceramic bodies by different shaping techniques

The present work deals with the processing of refractory ceramic products by using different shaping technologies, namely, unidirectional dry pressing, extrusion, and slip casting. The formulations used include an Al-rich sludge collected in the wastewater treatment unit of an industrial plant dealing with anodizing or surface-coating processes, diatomite and kaolin or ball clay. The effects of a pre-treatment given to the Al-rich sludge and of composition and amount of added dispersant on rheological behavior of suspensions were studied. The green bodies were sintered at different temperatures in the range 1400–1650 °C, and the ultimate material properties (firing shrinkage, water absorption, bending strength, SEM microstructure) were evaluated. The results obtained demonstrated that: (i) the flow behavior of the suspensions is strongly affected by the history of the Al-rich sludge and the composition, as well as by the added amount of deflocculant, (ii) the shaping process has a great influence on the final microstructures and material properties, which derive from different degrees of homogeneity and particle packing achieved in the green state. Soluble salts present in the Al-rich sludge create difficulties in achieving proper dispersion and make slip casting products less reliable compared with those consolidated by other shaping techniques.

Influence of particle size distribution on rheology and particle packing of silica-based suspensions

The effect of particle size, particle size distribution and milling time on the rheological behaviour and particle packing of silica suspensions was investigated using slurries containing total solids loading of 46 vol.%. Three silica powders with different average particle sizes (2.2, 6.5 and 19 μm), derived from dry milling of sand, and a colloidal fumed silica powder with 0.07 μm were used. Different proportions of colloidal fumed silica powder were added to each of the coarser silica powders and the mixtures were ball-milled for different time periods. The influence of these factors and of the particle size ratio on the rheological behaviour of the suspensions and densities of green slip cast bodies was studied. The results show that the flow properties of slips are strongly influenced by the particle size distribution. The viscosity of suspensions increases with the addition of fine particles, imposing some practical limitations in terms of volume fraction of fines that can be added. On the other hand, increasing the size ratio enhanced the shear thinning character of the suspensions, while decreasing the size ratio led to an accentuation of the shear thickening behaviour. For all mixed suspensions, green densities increased with increasing milling time, due to size reduction of silica powders and a more efficient deagglomeration of fumed silica. Increasing amounts of fumed silica led to a first increase of particle packing up to a maximum, followed by a decreasing trend for further additions. Good relationships could be observed between rheological results and packing densities.

RHEOLOGICAL AND DIELECTRIC CHARACTERIZATION OF ELECTRORHEOLOGICAL FLUIDS COMPOSED OF BOTH DISPERSED PARTICLES AND LIQUID DROPS IN A DIELECTRIC MEDIUM

The rheological and dielectric behavior of novel electrorheological suspensions composed of noncolloidal silica gel particles of irregular shape and oil-in-oil emulsions with different electrical conductivity (and permittivity) are studied in this work. The rheological behavior of the suspensions is examined in systems with various compositions of the oil phase under different intensities of constant DC electric fields. Results reveal that the electrorheological (ER) response of the oil-in-oil emulsion increases with the applied voltage but is affected negatively when the concentration of the oil with higher conductivity is increased. When a small volume fraction of silica gel is added, the ER response increases considerably and its magnitude is strongly dependent on the electric field. In this case, however, larger concentrations of the oil with the higher conductivity, in the presence of silica particles, increase the relative viscosity of the suspensions. The dielectric properties of the suspensions are examined to elucidate the relation between the dielectric relaxation process and the relative composition of liquid drop phases. The mechanisms responsible of the ER response are explained in terms of the relationship between the microstructure changes in the suspensions and their rheological and dielectric properties.

Rheological behaviour of suspensions prepared from plate‐shaped titanium dioxide particles in (hydroxypropyl) methylcellulose aqueous solution

Rheological behaviour of suspensions prepared from plate‐shaped titanium dioxide particles in (hydroxypropyl) methylcellulose aqueous solution

Rheology of Nano-Scale Aluminum Suspensions

Nano-scale aluminum particles are innovative materials which are used increasingly in energetic formulations. In this contribution, the rheological behavior of suspensions with either paraffin oil or HTPB as the matrix fluid and nano-scale aluminum (ALEX) as the dispersed phase is described and discussed. The paraffin oil/aluminum suspensions exhibit non-Newtonian flow behavior over a wide range of concentrations, whereas the HTPB/aluminum suspensions exhibit Newtonian behavior (i.e. the viscosity is independent of shear stress) up to a concentration of 50 vol.% aluminum. Both systems have unusual viscoelastic properties in that their elastic moduli are independent of the solids concentration.