Rheological behaviour of concentrated fused silica suspensions in presence of egg white

Experiments with highly loaded fused silica slurries indicated a possible role of egg white in modifying interparticle interactions for egg white content in the range of 0·14–8·8 mg egg white/g of silica. Existence of an optimum amount of egg white that resulted in a minimum in slurry viscosity and thixotropy owing to weakened interparticle interaction was shown reproducibly. Turbidity measurements of supernatants from slurries prepared with different egg white amounts confirmed that addition of egg white resulted in enhanced dispersion of silica particles in suspensions. Potentiometric titrations showed that slurries with egg white addition had greater particle surface charge than the slurries without any egg white addition.