Polyphosphates can stabilize but also aggregate colloids

Rayssa Jossanea Brasileiro Motta, Ana Zélia Falcão Almeida, Bruna Luiza Batista de Lima, Ricardo Schneider, Rosangela de Carvalho Balaban, Jeroen Sebastiaan van Duijneveldt, Rodrigo José de Oliveira

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
87 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Phosphates are well known as dispersants for a variety of colloidal particles. Here however we use rheological measurements to show that high molecular weight polyphosphates (PP) can instead act as a flocculant for Laponite clay platelets. The proposed mechanism is bridging of PP between clay particle edges, leading to highly charged clusters forming a Wigner glass. Dynamic light scattering shows a bimodal cluster size distribution, independent of PP molecular weight, but the highest molecular weight gave the highest viscous and loss moduli for the PP-clay solid. These unique all-inorganic solids may have application in solid-state ionic conducting materials, controlled release fertilizers and biomedical applications.
Original languageEnglish
Article number15
Pages (from-to)15-19
Number of pages5
JournalPhysical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Volume2020
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Nov 2019

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