Related papers: Network formation and relaxation dynamics in a new…
One major goal in condensed matter physics is identifying the physical mechanisms that lead to arrested states of matter, especially gels and glasses. The complex nature and microscopic details of each particular system are relevant.…
The density response of supercooled glycerol to an impulsive stimulated thermal grating (q=0.63 micron^-1) has been studied in the temperature range (T=200-340 K) where the structure rearrangement (alpha-relaxation) and thermal diffusion…
Colloidal gels constitute an important class of materials found in many contexts and with a wide range of applications. Yet as matter far from equilibrium, gels exhibit a variety of time-dependent behaviours, which can be perplexing, such…
In this chapter, a study of the glass transitions in colloidal systems is presented, in connection with gelation, mainly from theoretical and simulation results. Mode Coupling Theory, which anticipated the existence of attraction driven…
We introduce and numerically study a model designed to mimic the bulk behavior of a system composed of single-stranded DNA dendrimers. Complementarity of the base sequences of different strands results in the formation of strong cooperative…
Colloidal gels have strong industrial relevance as they can behave liquid- and solid-like. The latter allows them to support the buoyant weight against gravity. However, the system is intrinsically out-of-equilibrium, which means that the…
We use a combination of original light scattering techniques and particles with unique optical properties to investigate the behavior of suspensions of attractive colloids under gravitational stress, following over time the concentration…
We construct equilibrium networks by introducing an energy function depending on the degree of each node as well as the product of neighboring degrees. With this topological energy function, networks constitute a canonical ensemble, which…
Endothelial cells are responsible for the formation of the capillary blood vessel network. We describe a system of endothelial cells by means of two-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of point-like particles. Cells' motion is…
We exploit the controlled drying of millimeter-sized gel beads to investigate isotropic compression of colloidal fractal gels. Using a custom dynamic light scattering setup, we demonstrate that stresses imposed by drying on the bead surface…
Letting free polymers diffuse from solution into a crosslinked polymer gel is often a crucial processing step in the synthesis of multiphase polymer-based gels, e.g., core-shell microgels. Here we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
We report on the low temperature behaviour of the colloidal electrolyte by means of Molecular Dynamics simulations, where the electrostatic interactions were modeled using effective screened interactions. As in previous works, we have found…
We introduce a semi-schematic mode-coupling model to describe the slow dynamics in molecular liquids, retaining explicitly only the description of the center of mass degrees of freedom. Angular degrees of freedom are condensed in a q-vector…
We propose a continuum theory of the liquid-liquid phase separation in an elastic network where phase-separated microscopic droplets rich in one fluid component can form as an interplay of fluids mixing, droplet nucleation, network…
I review computational studies of different models of elastic network self-organization leading to the existence of a globally isostatic (rigid but unstressed) or nearly isostatic intermediate phase. A common feature of all models…
We introduce a new dynamic light scattering method, termed photon correlation imaging, which enables us to resolve the dynamics of soft matter in space and time. We demonstrate photon correlation imaging by investigating the slow dynamics…
The dynamics of randomly crosslinked liquids is addressed via a Rouse- and a Zimm-type model with crosslink statistics taken either from bond percolation or Erdoes-Renyi random graphs. While the Rouse-type model isolates the effects of the…
Colloid-polymer mixtures can undergo spinodal decomposition into colloid-rich and colloid-poor regions. Gelation results when interconnected colloid-rich regions solidify. We show that this occurs when these regions undergo a glass…
We study analytically and numerically a generic continuum model of an isotropic active solid with internal stresses generated by non-equilibrium `active' mechano-chemical reactions. Our analysis shows that the gel can be tuned through three…
We investigate a model for colloidal network formation using Brownian Dynamics computer simulations. Hysteretic springs establish transient bonds between particles with repulsive core. If a bonded pair is separated by a cutoff distance, the…