Investigation On the Behavior of Poly(acrylic acid) in Water Solution and Its Effect on the Rheology of α- Al2O3 Suspension

The influence of pH, relative molecular weight and concentration of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) on the viscosity of PAA solution was investigated. It was found that the rheology of PAA solution was closely related to the ionization and conformation of PAA chains. The increasing rigidity and the stretching of polymer chain resulted in a maximum viscosity at pH=8. The viscosity change of PAAsolution with addition of alumina powder was studied. It was found that the suspension viscosity reached its minimum when the amount of ceramic powder and PAA was at a certain ratio. At the same time, the viscosity minimum was also influenced by the particle size of powder.