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The non-Newtonian viscosities of polymerically stabilized colloidal suspensions are usually predicted and correlated on the basis of data and scaling principles for Brownian hard spheres. Here, the specific effect of the stabilizer layer is investigated using suspensions of monodisperse PMMA particles with a chemically attached stabilizer layer. The ratio between particle radius and stabilizer layer thickness is changed between 5 and 61. At high values of this ratio the data show Brownian hard sphere behavior. At lower values deviations appear. As a first approximation, the "softness" of the particles can be characterized through the concentration at maximum packing. A more detailed comparison with hard sphere data provides a measure for softness that changes with concentration and shear rate. A theoretical estimate of the concentration effect is in line with the experiments. The critical shear stress (or Peclet number) is not a constant but goes through a maximum when the concentration is increased.

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