Authors: Iris A Gutowski David Lee John R de Bruyn Barbara J Frisken
Publish Date: 2012/01/18
Volume: 51, Issue: 5, Pages: 441-450
Abstract
Rheological measurements were performed on aqueous dispersions of two commercial crosslinked polymer microgels Carbopol Ultrez 10 and Carbopol ETD 2050 prepared over a wide range of concentration and pH For all concentrations studied both the yield stress and the elastic modulus initially increased dramatically with pH and displayed broad peaks at intermediate pH This is consistent with the onset of jamming of the Carbopol particles due to a rapid increase in particle size caused by osmotic swelling in the presence of NaOH Scaling of both yield stress and elasticity with concentration was observed only at higher concentrations which we believe indicates a change from a percolated structure at low volume fractions to a space filling network of compressed particles at high volume fractions This model is supported by confocal microscopy of fluorescently dyed Carbopol dispersionsWe would like to thank Lester Poon Sharan Swarup and Tim Helslip for help with fluorescence microscopy and Felix Oppong for assistance with rheological measurements This research was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
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