Re-entrant ordering of solute in a colloidal suspension during solvent evaporation
Abstract
We study the phenomenon of self-assembly of silica micro-spheres on a glass plate during evaporation of the solvent from a colloidal suspension. Our experiments unveil an interesting competition between ordering and compaction in a strongly driven, out of equilibrium system arising from a slowing down of dynamics due to an impending glass transition. A suitable choice of experimental conditions minimizing the influence of many other competing phenomena that usually complicate probing of this underlying physics is crucial for our study. A re-entrant behavior in the order-disorder phase diagram as a function of particle density and drying time is established and the results are explained with the help of simulations and phenomenological theory.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1106.4716,
title = {Re-entrant ordering of solute in a colloidal suspension during solvent evaporation},
author = {Sumanta Mukherjee and Arnab Saha and Pralay K. Santra and Surajit Sengupta and D. D. Sarma},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1106.4716},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 PDF figures