Investigation of rheological properties of a nanocomposite of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with polyethylene glycol

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a new investigation of the rheological properties of a nanocomposite of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with polyethylene glycol (PEG). The surface of the nanocomposite had no electrical charge and the SPIONs were coated with the polymer. The investigations were performed at different temperatures and the results were compared on different rheological parameters. The steady-state behavior of samples was observed at 20 °C and 40 °C and a small increase of viscosity versus shear strain, shear rate or time was revealed at 60 °C. Moreover, the shear stress increase was observed with the increase of shear rate and shear strain. The slopes of the corresponding changes were higher at 20 °C and decreased with the increase in temperature. The torque values increased with shear strain and time. The same phenomenon concerning the different slopes at different temperatures was observed for the torque-shear strain and torque-time variations. These results showed that the rheological properties of the nanocomposite depended on the temperature and could change with the temperature increase. An advantage of this study was that the comparative investigation of the rheological properties of nanocomposite at different temperatures was carried out. The other advantage was that the effect of the coating of the SPIONs with the polymer was observed in the obtained results. This new investigation of the nanaocomposite of SPIONs-PEG coated with PEG can provide comparative data for more investigations of the surface charged SPIONs coated with this polymer. These studies can provide information for a further investigation of the effect of the surface charge of SPIONs in the polymeric matrix on their rheological properties.