TY - JOUR
T1 - Isotropic-nematic phase transition in aqueous sepiolite suspensions
AU - Woolston, Phillip
AU - van Duijneveldt, Jeroen S.
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - Aqueous suspensions of sepiolite clay rods in water tend to form gels on increase of concentration. Here it is shown how addition of a small amount (0.1% of the clay mass) of a common stabiliser for clay suspensions, sodium polyacrylate, can allow the observation of an isotropic-nematic liquid crystal phase transition. This transition was found to move to higher clay concentrations upon adding NaCl, with samples containing 10-3M salt or above only displaying a gel phase. Even samples that initially formed liquid crystals had a tendency to form gels after several weeks, possibly due to Mg2+ ions leaching from the clay mineral.
AB - Aqueous suspensions of sepiolite clay rods in water tend to form gels on increase of concentration. Here it is shown how addition of a small amount (0.1% of the clay mass) of a common stabiliser for clay suspensions, sodium polyacrylate, can allow the observation of an isotropic-nematic liquid crystal phase transition. This transition was found to move to higher clay concentrations upon adding NaCl, with samples containing 10-3M salt or above only displaying a gel phase. Even samples that initially formed liquid crystals had a tendency to form gels after several weeks, possibly due to Mg2+ ions leaching from the clay mineral.
KW - Aqueous
KW - Clay
KW - Nematic
KW - Polyacrylate
KW - Rodlike colloids
KW - Sepiolite
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84908544488&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jcis.2014.09.014
DO - 10.1016/j.jcis.2014.09.014
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
C2 - 25313468
AN - SCOPUS:84908544488
SN - 0021-9797
VL - 437
SP - 65
EP - 70
JO - Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
JF - Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
ER -