SAXS Studies on Agglomerative Silica Suspension under Shear

The rheological properties of colloidal suspensions depend on interactions between solid particles and medium. Within such suspensions, the particles above a certain volume fraction form a network. This structure may be broken under shear. In this study, the agglomerative silica suspension were studied using rheometry and small angle synchrotron X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments under shear and static conditions. SAXS measurements under shear were performed at beam line BL08B2 to obtain scattering profiles for the silica suspension. The sizes of the paracrystals were calculated and decreased with the increase of the shear rate. The theory combined with the change of the paracrystal size was also adopted to explain the rheological properties of colloidal suspensions.