Shear rheology of extended nanoparticles

Nonequilibrium molecular-dynamics simulations are presented for the shear rheology of suspensions of extended "jack"-shaped nanoparticles in an explicit solvent. The shear viscosity is measured for two jack-shaped nanoparticle suspensions for volume fractions from 0.01 to 0.15 and compared to spherical nanoparticles of the same mass. Large differences, in some cases, orders of magnitude, are observed for both the equilibrium viscosity and diffusion constant as the shape of the nanoparticle is varied. The source of enhanced viscosity is the very large effective volume swept out by these extended nanoparticles which allows them to become highly entangled even at low volume fraction. © 2010 The American Physical Society.