Sedimentation stability and aging of aqueous dispersions of Laponite in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide

This work discusses the sedimentation stability and aging of aqueous suspensions of Laponite in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The concentration of Laponite was fixed at a constant level C-l = 2 % wt, which corresponds to the threshold between equilibrium gel IG(1) and glass IG(2) states. The concentration of CTAB C-s was within 0-0.3 % wt. In the presence of CTAB, the Laponite aqueous suspensions were unstable against sedimentation and separated into the upper and bottom layers (U and B layers, respectively). The dynamic light-scattering technique has revealed that addition of CTAB even at a rather small concentration, C-s = 0.0164 % wt (0.03 cation exchange capacity), induced noticeable changes in the aging dynamics of the U layer. It was explained by equilibration of CTAB molecules that were initially nonuniformly distributed between different Laponite particles. Accelerated stability analysis by means of analytical centrifugation with rotor speed omega = 500-4000 rpm revealed three sedimentation regimes: continuous (I, C-s < 0.14 % wt), zonelike (II, 0.14 < C-s < 0.2 % wt), and gel-like (III, C-s > 0.2 % wt). It was demonstrated that the B layer was "soft" in the zonelike regime. The increase of. resulted in its supplementary compressing and collapse of "soft" sediment above certain critical centrifugal acceleration. The physical nature of the observed behavior, accounting for enhancement of hydrophobic interactions between Laponite particles, is discussed.