Solid dispersions rheology

SBR latices are high-solids dispersions of rubber particles in water, the viscosity and rheology of which are, in general, independent of the polymer properties, unlike solutions. They offer a wide range of molecular weight and glass transition temperature. Three classes of SBR latices are available in the market. 

It was our intention to provide the Soft Matter community with a comprehensive review of some recent approaches on the rheology of polymer-colloid dispersions. We hope that the reader will feel that the different topics discussed in this volume, which each address a particular facet of high solid dispersions, complement each other and help to draw a bridge between microscopic phenomena and macroscopic rheology. 

Solids and Droplets Codispersed Systems Solids-Oil-Water Ternary Mixtures. Mixtures of oil and solids dispersed in water and mixtures of water and solids dispersed in oil are commonly encountered in the petroleum industry (189). It is of great interest in studying the rheological behavior of ternary systems, where two distinct materials... 

In aqueous dispersion media, the preparation of high solids dispersions that are stabilized electrostatically is often fui d by the gel-hke nature of the product. This is a consequence of the interactions between the double layers surrounding each particle. No comparable increase is evident in the viscosity of sterically stabilized dispersions at high solids content. Of course, in certain applications, such as in paints, the rheological properties exhibited by electrostatically stabilized dispersions at high solids may be a decided advantage rather than a drawback. 

A typical checklist includes dispersability, rheology, plate-out, thermal stability, appearance, light fastness, weathering, migration, and toxicity in both processing and use, particularly in leaching from solid waste. 

Theoretical treatments of emulsion rheology are less well developed than those devised for particulate dispersions. It therefore seems appropriate to give a brief survey of classical work on particulate dispersion rheology as a prelude to discussing the rheology of dispersions of droplets. A further justification for this approach is the observation that, in practice, many a fine emulsion system can be reliably treated in rheological terms as if it were a dispersion of solid spherical particles. 

Organotitanates form regular adsorbed layers on the filler surfaces. This assures a high degree of dispersibility of the solid particles of the filler, removal of moisture and air from the surfaces, a material improvement of the rheological properties of filled compositions. Also, it is possible to use much greater percentages of cheap... 

The existence of yield stress Y at shear strains seems to be the most typical feature of rheological properties of highly filled polymers. A formal meaing of this term is quite obvious. It means that at stresses lower than Y the material behaves like a solid, i.e. it deforms only elastically, while at stresses higher than Y, like a liquid, i.e. it can flow. At a first approximation it may be assumed that the material is not deformed at all, if stresses are lower than Y. In this sense, filled polymers behave as visco-plastic media with a low-molecular and low-viscosity dispersion medium. This analogy is not random as will be stressed below when the values of the yield stress are compared for the systems with different dispersion media. The existence of yield stress in its physical meaning must be correlated with the strength of a structure formed by the interaction between the particles of a filler. 

Rheological determinations are destructive of the structures they measure for this reason they do not portray the actual structure of the dispersion at rest. Accordingly, various methods have been devised for extrapolating to zero the results of measurements at various shear rates. The most useful one has been the conversion of viscosities to fluidities at various shear rates and the extrapolation of the resulting nearly linear relationship to zero shear, as shown in Figure 7. Sometimes a power of the shear rate, D, provides a better distinction between a sol (essentially a liquid) and a gel (essentially a solid), as shown in the figure, but the difference between a finite intercept (sol) and zero fluidity (gel) is largely fictitious because of the dependence of the intercept on the exponent n. 

Weatherley (1998) has discussed all the relevant aspects of the separation of low molecular weight biologically produced molecules by solvent extraction. A high degree of selectivity can be realized by careful selection of the solvent. Problems associated with the rheology of the broth, the presence of surfactants and solid materials needs to be recognized. There is a scope to consider intensified electrostatic contact for broth dispersion and separation. Examples covered in this treatise include penicillin G and cA-dihydrodiols. 

---