Probing the roles of surface characteristic of suspended nanoparticle in shear thickening suspensions

The surface characteristic of suspended nanoparticle is an extremely important property for the non-Newtonian behavior of shear thickening suspensions. Easy access to distinct surface characteristics and a deep understanding of the role of friction and adhesion forces remains challenging yet critical to study the suspension performance. In this work, by synthesizing mesoporous silica with different surface roughness and groups, the influence of surface characteristics on the non-Newtonian behavior of suspension is comprehensively explored. The results show that the suspensions containing particles with rough surface and hydroxyl groups on the surface have higher shear thickening power, lower critical shear rate, lower discontinuous shear thickening transition fraction and lower jamming fraction. Furthermore, the test of the first normal stress difference N1 shows that the interparticle friction and adhesion both reduce the critical volume fraction of the transition from fluid lubrication dominance to frictional contact dominance in the suspension. This finding deepens the understanding of phase transformation mechanism, and open an approach to accelerate the advanced shear thickening suspensions design for next-generation intelligent materials.