Gelation of rod particle suspension in Newtonian fluid

The gelation of FeOOH rod particles in a glycerin-water mixture under shear flows is investigated using rheological measurements. The average length and the average diameter of the rod particles are 1 μm and 120 nm, respectively. The van der Waals energy is much larger than the Brownian and electrostatic contributions. To examine the effect of shear history on gelation, two different kinds of experimental procedures are used: A strong, but short preshear followed by a creep test and a preshear for a long time followed by a creep test. The rod particle suspension becomes a gel during the creep test showing the plateau in G' and yield stress. The gelation time during the creep test is dependent on preshear time while it is not affected by the preshear stress for a short time before the creep test. Both the plateau in G' and the yield stress are larger when the preshear time is longer. The gelation appears to occur by two steps of the formation of flocs by the aggregation of individual particles and then the formation of the sample spanning network by the aggregation of the flocs. Gel strength appears to be dependent on floc size which is determined by the imposed shear stress in the present case of shear induced gelation.