Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.200, No.2, 228-234, 1998
Reversible thermal flocculation of aqueous alpha-Fe2O3 dispersions stabilized with novel poly(vinylether) block copolymers
The colloidal stability with respect to temperature of aqueous alpha-Fe2O3 dispersions stabilized with novel poly( vinylmethylether)-block-poly(vinyloxy-4-butyric acid) diblock copolymers was studied by rheological and turbidimetric measurements. Adsorption of the block copolymers provides the particles with a steric barrier due to the nonadsorbing poly( vinylmethylether) (PVME) blocks. Rheological measurements on concentrated(15 vol %)dispersions showed that flocculation occurred near the theta temperature of PVME in water. For the turbidimetric analysis, the fraction of small particles was used at a very low concentration. With these dispersions, flocculation was found at higher temperatures, corresponding to the lower critical solution temperature of the block copolymer used. The particles spontaneously redispersed when a heated and flocculated dispersion was cooled to below the flocculation temperature.