Rheology and Microstructure of Shear Thickening Fluid Suspoemulsions

A novel shear thickening suspoemulsion is formulated and studied with a new rheo-microscope instrument. The experimental fluid system is comprised of a immiscible blend of Newtonian, low molecular weight poly(dimethylsiloxane) and a shear thickening suspension of colloidal silica in poly(ethylene glycol). The blend is studied as a function of composition where phase inversion is evident at low shear rates and is found to be shear rate dependent. A shear thickening viscosity curve is observed when blends comprised of shear thickening fluid dispersed as droplets are subjected to high shear rates. Dispersing a continuously shear thickening fluid, Øsilica= 0.42, results in continuously shear thickening response from the blend. Dispersing a discontinuously shear thickening fluid, Øsilica= 0.51, results in bulk shear thickening that can also be discontinuous. Shear thickening in the final suspoemulsion is consistently first detected at ØSTF= 0.2, with the magnitude of shear thickening being dependent on the particle concentration in the STF phase. The onset of shear thickening also corresponds with the formation of extended droplet structures in the fluid. The complex properties of these suspoemulsions and the ability to formulate dispersed droplet morphologies in this mixture are shown to result from the underlying shear thickening rheology of the dispersed phase.