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Shear thickening behavior of nanoparticle suspensions with carbon nanofillers

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Abstract

Suspensions comprised of silica nanoparticle (average diameter: 650 nm) and carbon nanofillers dispersed in polyethylene glycol were prepared and investigated. Rheological measurement demonstrated that the mixed suspensions showed a non-Newtonian flow profile, and the shear thickening effect was enhanced by the addition of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (main range of diameter: 10–20 nm; length: 5–15 μm; purity: >97 wt%) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNs) (average diameter: >50 nm; average length: 20 μm; purity: >92 wt%). It suggested that better the aggregation effect of dispersed particles was, the more significant the shear thickening effect achieved. The results also revealed that the formation of large nanomaterials clusters could be suitable to explain the phenomena. Furthermore, the trend of shear thickening behavior of the silica suspension with CNTs was more striking than that of GNs. The physical reactions between those multi-dispersed phases had been described by the schematic illustrations in papers. Otherwise, a model was built to explain these behaviors, which could be attributed to the unique structures and inherent properties of these two different nanofillers. And the morphologies of the shear thickening fluid which were examined by transmission electron microscopy confirmed this mechanism.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51203062), Cooperative Innovation Fund-Prospective Project of Jiangsu Province (No. BY2012064), and Science and Technology support Project of Jiangsu Province (No. BE2011014). K.J. Yu thanks the Postdoctoral Fund Project of China (No. 2012M520995).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Eco-textiles, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Room D113, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, 214122, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaofei Sha, Kejing Yu, Haijian Cao & Kun Qian

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  1. Xiaofei Sha
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  2. Kejing Yu
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  3. Haijian Cao
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  4. Kun Qian
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Correspondence to Kejing Yu.

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Sha, X., Yu, K., Cao, H. et al. Shear thickening behavior of nanoparticle suspensions with carbon nanofillers. J Nanopart Res 15, 1816 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-1816-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-1816-x

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