Thermally Responsive Capillary Suspensions

Thermally gelling, thermally responsive elastin-mimetic triblock hydrogels

Capillary suspensions: Particle networks formed through the capillary force.

The addition of small amounts of a secondary fluid to a suspension can, through the attractive capillary force, lead to particle bridging and network formation. The capillary bridging phenomenon can be used to stabilize particle suspensions and precisely tune their rheological properties. This effect can even occur when the secondary fluid wets the particles less well than the bulk fluid. These...

Capillary penetration failure of blood suspensions.

Blood suspension fails to penetrate a capillary with radius R less than 50 microm even if the capillary is perfectly wettable. This invasion threshold is attributed to three red blood cells (RBCs) segregation mechanisms--corner deflection at the entrance, the intermediate deformation-induced radial migration and shear-induced diffusion within a packed slug at the meniscus. The shear-induced rad...

Thermally responsive fluid behaviors in hydrophobic nanopores.

A fundamental understanding of the thermal effects on nanofluid behaviors is critical for developing and designing innovative thermally responsive nanodevices. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and experiment, we investigate the temperature-dependent intrusion/adsorption of water molecules into hydrophobic nanopores (carbon nanotubes and nanoporous carbon) and the underlying mechanisms. ...

Particle configurations and gelation in capillary suspensions

When a small amount (less than 1%) of a second immiscible liquid is added to the continuous phase of a suspension, the rheological properties of the admixture are dramatically altered and can change from a fluid-like to a gel-like state. These so-called capillary suspensions transition to a gel-like state both if the secondary liquid preferentially wets the particles (pendular state) and even i...