Effect of salt and alcohols on the phase behavior and self-assembly of laponite aqueous suspensions.

The ionic strength and the presence of alcohols have a major role in the behavior of colloidal suspensions. Here in this work, we investigate the phase behavior and the rheological properties of Laponite suspensions in water-ethanol binary solvent at varying concentrations of NaCl. The conductivity of the suspension increases with an increase in the concentration of Laponite and ionic strength but decreases as the ethanol concentration in the binary solvent increases. From the visual observations, we obtain phase diagrams indicating the phase transitions happening to the Laponite suspensions in the presence of salt and alcohol. An increase in the storage modulus of the Laponite suspensions with the alcohol and salt concentration is observed. The aging effects of the suspension is also studied in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]