The shape effect and mechanism of particle‐reinforced shear‐thickening gel composites

Abstract In order to meet the requirements of practical applications, the shape effect of particles and their shear‐thickening mechanism is very crucial to the shear thickening gels (STG). In this work, three kinds of STG/particle composites were successfully prepared by blending nanoscale SiO 2 , microscale MWCNTs, and millimeter‐scale carbon fiber in STG. The Rheological Property, compression, and impact resistance of STG/particle composites were tested and analyzed. The results showed that the enhancement of the shear‐thickening properties of STG by nanoparticles was more pronounced than that of micrometer and millimeter‐sized particles. Nanoscale SiO 2 significantly improved the storage modulus of STG, the G' max of STG/6%SiO 2 increased by 124.63% compared with pure STG. Nanoscale SiO 2 also had a great enhancement effect on the compression resistance of STG, the bearing capacity of STG/6%SiO 2 and STG increased by 7.7 and 4.5 times. Furthermore, the energy absorption of STG/6%SiO 2 and STG increased by 545% and 282% respectively. The drop hammer impact test also showed that STG/6%SiO 2 had the best impact resistance. In addition, a possible mechanism of shear‐thickening properties of particle‐enhanced STG was proposed.