Shear thinning of nanoparticle suspensions

Results of large scale nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations are presented for nanoparticles in an explicit solvent. The nanoparticles are modeled as a uniform distribution of Lennard-Jones particles, while the solvent is represented by standard Lennard-Jones particles. We present results for the shear rheology of spherical nanoparticles of diameter 10 times that of the solvent for a range of nanoparticle volume fractions. By varying the strength of the interactions between nanoparticles and with the solvent, this system can be used to model colloidal gels and glasses as well as hard spherelike nanoparticles. Effect of including the solvent explictly is demonstrated by comparing the pair correlation function of nanoparticles to that in an implicit solvent. The shear rheology for dumbbell nanoparticles made of two fused spheres is similar to that of single nanoparticle.