Optical properties of dilute hematite/silicone oil suspensions under low electric fields

Electrorheology (ER) is the name given to a set of phenomena related to the significant changes experienced by the rheological properties of certain fluids and suspensions upon application of external electric fields. It is mostly explained in terms of the formation of particle aggregates as a consequence of field-induced particle-particle interactions. In this work, we explore such structures by investigating the changes in optical absorbance of hematite/silicone oil suspensions associated to the application of an electric field. We have studied the effect of particle concentration, phi, electric field strength, E(0), and viscosity, eta(m), of the liquid medium on the absorbance-time behavior of the suspensions. Photographs of the electrified suspensions helped in elucidating the structures formed. At low phi values, the absorbance A of electrified suspensions dramatically decreases with time until a constant plateau is reached. The absorbance fall is faster the higher the field, although at long times curves corresponding to different fields tend to merge. In these dilute suspensions particles are observed to migrate toward the electrodes thus clarifying the medium and reducing A. When the concentration of particles is increased, fibrils stretching between the electrodes can be observed in addition to particle deposition on them, as long as the field is kept low. At high fields, migration of the particles to the electrodes occurs whatever the volume fraction. Two mechanisms producing particle-particle interactions are suggested by these data: the conductivity mismatch between the particles and the medium brings about an interfacial or Maxwell-Wagner polarization of the particles; in addition, solids can acquire a net charge provoked by injection from the electrodes. The first mechanism will produce attractive dipole-dipole interactions and hence columns or fibrils. The second one should lead to electrophoretic migration. Structural observations suggest that the latter predominates at high fields. If the viscosity of the fluid phase is increased, the critical electric field values separating both regimes also increase: the electrophoretic motion is hindered and the particle-particle aggregation is enhanced.