Accelerated Sedimentation Velocity Assessment for Nanowires Stabilized in a Non-Newtonian Fluid

In this work, the long-term stability of titanium oxide nanowire suspensions was accessed by an accelerated sedimentation with centrifugal forces. Titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticle (NP) and nanowire (NW) dispersions were prepared, and their sizes were carefully characterized. To replace the time-consuming visual observation, sedimentation velocities of the TiO2 NP and NW suspensions were measured using an analytical centrifuge. For an aqueous TiO2 NP suspension, the measured sedimentation velocities were linearly dependent on the relative centrifugal forces (RCF), as predicted by the classical Stokes law. A similar linear relationship was also found in the case of TiO2 NW aqueous suspensions. However, NWs preferred to settle parallel to the centrifugal direction under high RCF because of the lower flow resistance along the long axis. Thus, the extrapolated sedimentation velocity under regular gravity can be overestimated. Finally, a stable TiO2 NW suspension was formulated with a shear thinning fluid and showed great stability for weeks using visual observation. A theoretical analysis was deduced with rheological shear-thinning parameters to describe the nonlinear power-law dependence between the measured sedimentation velocities and RCF. The good agreement between the theoretical predictions and measurements suggested that the sedimentation velocity can be properly extrapolated to regular gravity. In summary, this accelerated assessment on a theoretical basis can yield quantitative information about long-term stability within a short time (a few hours) and can be further extended to other suspension systems.