Concentration dependence of yield stress and dynamic moduli of kaolinite suspensions

Langmuir. 2015 Apr 28;31(16):4791-7. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b00536. Epub 2015 Apr 16.

Abstract

The concentration dependence of yield stress and dynamic moduli of kaolinite suspensions is studied. Complex electrostatic interactions between kaolinite platelets promote a more liquid-like behavior, with clay particles changing from attractive interactions to a face-face repulsive interaction as the mass fraction of clay particles increases. A yield stress model is developed based on the repulsive interaction between disk-shaped particles, which yields a good prediction of experimental observations when repulsive face-face interaction is dominant. The critical concentration when attractive interaction changes completely to face-face repulsive interaction is estimated from the theory. Four regions are identified in the variation of yield stress as a function of the concentration.