Phase Behavior of Dilute Carbon Black Suspensions and Carbon Black Stabilized Emulsions

We use para-amino benzoic acid terminated carbon black (CB) as a tunable model particulate material to study the effect of inter-particle interactions on phase behavior and steady shear stresses in suspensions and particle-stabilized emulsions. We modulate inter-particle interactions by adding NaCl to the suspension, thus salting surface carboxylate groups. Surprisingly, yield stress behavior emerged at a volume fraction of CB as low as $\phi_{\mathrm{CB}} = $ 0.008, and gel behavior was observed at $\phi_{\mathrm{CB}}$ \textgreater 0.05, well below the percolation threshold for non-interacting particles. The yield stress was found to grow rapidly with carbon black concentration suggesting that salt-induced hydrophobicity leads to strong inter-particle interactions and the formation of a network at low particle concentrations. The yield stresses of CB-stabilized emulsions also grows rapidly with carbon black concentrations, implying that inter-droplet interactions can be induced through the tuning of carbon black concentration in emulsion systems. Emulsions stabilized by ionic surfactants show no inter-droplet interactions. In contrast, oil droplets in the CB-stabilized emulsion move collectively or are immobilized because of an interconnected CB network in the aqueous phase.