English

Diffusion, phase behavior and gelation in a two-dimensional layer of colloids in osmotic equilibrium with a polymer reservoir

Soft Condensed Matter 2024-06-19 v1

Abstract

The addition of enough non-adsorbing polymer to an otherwise stable colloidal suspension gives rise to a variety of phase behavior and kinetic arrest due to the depletion attraction induced between the colloids by the polymers. We report a study of these phenomena in a two-dimensional layer of colloids. The three-dimensional phenomenology of crystal-fluid coexistence is reproduced, but gelation takes a novel form, in which the strands in the gel structure are locally crystalline. We compare our findings with a previous simulation and theory, and find substantial agreement.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2106.01856,
  title  = {Diffusion, phase behavior and gelation in a two-dimensional layer of colloids in osmotic equilibrium with a polymer reservoir},
  author = {Sam E Griffiths and Nick Koumakis and Aidan T Brown and Teun Vissers and Patrick B Warren and Wilson C K Poon},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.01856},
  year   = {2024}
}