Dispersion of Silica Fines in Water-Ethanol Suspensions

The dispersion of silica fines in water-ethanol suspensions has been studied through the measurement of settling efficiency, wetting rate, zeta potential, and viscosity. The measurements were performed on two silica samples with mean volumetric diameters of 5.02 and 0.272 &mgr;m at different fractions of ethanol in water-ethanol suspensions. The results have demonstrated that the dispersion stability of the silica suspensions increased as the fraction of ethanol increased and reached to maximum at the fraction of 50%, followed by a decline. The stability was stronger in a pure ethanol suspension than in a pure water suspension. It was observed that the stability closely correlated with the lyophilicity of the particles, but was not predominated by the surface charge of the particles as predicted by the DLVO theory. Viscosity measurements have been used to estimate the solvation film thickness on silica particles immersed in water-ethanol suspensions, on the basis of Einstein's theory of the viscosity of dispersions. It was found that the solvation film thickness on silica fines in a water-ethanol (1 : 1) suspension is about double that in a pure water suspension and about 1.4-fold that in a pure ethanol suspension, respectively, which well explains the dispersion behaviors of the silica fines in the water-ethanol suspensions because a thicker solvation film will cause a stronger disjoining pressure to prevent the proximity of the particles. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.