Influence of dispersant size on rheology of non-aqueous ceramic particle suspensions

Abstract

The surface of alumina, which is hydrophilic in general, was made hydrophobic either by adsorption of polymer (phys-adsorption) or by an alkylation reaction with alcohol (chem-adsorption) to enable dispersion in dodecane. Hypermer A70 (8.2 nm) was used as the polymer and 1-octanol (1.2 nm), 1-decanol (1.5 nm) and 1-hexadecanol (2.5 nm) were used as the alcohol (values in brackets are the approximate thickness of the steric barrier). Rheological measurements of ceramic suspensions indicate that it is possible to achieve a high solid loading (50 vol.%) with relatively low viscosity (0.25 Pa s at 100 s-1, the typical shear rate for pumping of liquids in pipes) as long as the stabilising molecul..