Effect of the interparticle pair potential on the rheological behavior of zirconia powders: I, Electrostatic double layer approach

Abstract

Aqueous slurries containing 20 vol% ZrO2 powder doped with 3 mol% Y2O3 were prepared by first dispersing the powder at pH 11, then adding 0.1 M to 1.0 M tetramethylammonium chloride (TMACl), or 1.0 M of TPACl, CsCl, and LiCl to produce different, weakly attractive particle networks. The particle pair potentials in the slurries were investigated by viscosity versus shear rate measurements. Slurries exhibited increasing viscosities (at a given shear rate) with increasing salt concentration and decreasing (unhydrated) counterion size. The viscosities for these weakly attractive networks were intermediate to dispersed (pH 11 without added salt) and flocced (isoelectric point, pH 7.5) slurries. C..