We present molecular dynamics simulations of aggregation kinetics in a colloidal suspension modeled as a highly asymmetric binary mixture. Starting from a configuration with largely uncorrelated colloidal particles the system relaxes by coagulation-fragmentation dynamics to a structured state of low-dimensionality clusters with an exponential size distribution. The results show that short-range repulsive interactions alone can give rise to so-called cluster phases. For the present model and probably other, more common colloids, the observed clusters appear to be equilibrium phase fluctuations induced by the entropic inter-colloidal attractions.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0601452,
title = {Aggregation kinetics in a model colloidal suspension},
author = {Sorin Bastea},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0601452},
year = {2007}
}