Related papers: Highly nonlinear dynamics in a slowly sedimenting …
We model the behaviour of a single colloid embedded in a cross-linked polymer gel, immersed in a viscous background fluid. External fields actuate the particle into a periodic motion, which deforms the embedding matrix and creates a local…
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…
Drying suspensions often leave behind complex patterns of particulates, as might be seen in the coffee stains on a table. Here we consider the dynamics of periodic band or uniform solid film formation on a vertical plate suspended partially…
Gels in soft-matter systems are an important nonergodic state of matter. We study a colloid-polymer mixture which is quenched by increasing the polymer concentration, from a fluid to a gel. Using confocal microscopy, we study both the…
The mechanical properties of crystalline materials can be substantially modified under confinement. Such modified macroscopic properties are usually governed by the altered microstructures and internal stress fields. Here, we use a parallel…
We study experimentally the origin of heterogeneous dynamics in strongly driven glass-forming systems. Thereto, we apply a well-defined force with a laser line trap on individual colloidal polystyrene probe particles seeded in an emulsion…
We study the pressure-driven flow of concentrated colloids confined in glass micro-channels at the single particle level using fast confocal microscopy. For channel to particle size ratios $a/\bar{D} \lesssim 30$, the flow rate of the…
Using multispeckle x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy, we have measured the slow, wave-vector dependent dynamics of concentrated, disordered nanoemulsions composed of silicone oil droplets in water. The intermediate scattering function…
Colloidal gels are formed through the aggregation of attractive particles, whose size ranges from 10~nm to a few micrometers, suspended in a liquid. Such gels are ubiquitous in everyday life applications, from food products to paints or…
Charged colloidal particles can self-assemble into gel networks upon screening of electrostatic repulsion by added salt. While gelation of spherical colloids has been extensively studied, much less is known about the gelation dynamics of…
The macroscopic mechanical properties of densely packed coagulated colloidal particle gels strongly depend on the local arrangement of the powder particles on length scales of a few particle diameters. Heterogeneous microstructures exhibit…
Slow dynamics in a fluid are studied in one of the most basic systems possible: polydisperse hard spheres. Monodisperse hard spheres cannot be studied as the slow down in dynamics as the density is increased is preempted by crystallisation.…
We introduce a system of shallow water-type equations to model laboratory experiments of particle-laden flows. We explore homogeneous liquid-solid suspensions of fine, non-cohesive, monodisperse glass beads which propagate as an equivalent…
The nonlinear rheological properties of dense colloidal suspensions under steady shear are discussed within a first principles approach. It starts from the Smoluchowski equation of interacting Brownian particles in a given shear flow,…
We report an experimental investigation of the spontaneous motion of liquid droplets on soft gels with a crosslinking gradient. By systematically adjusting the spatial difference in crosslinking density, we observed that millimeter-sized…
We study the rheology of a suspension of soft deformable droplets subjected to a pressure-driven flow. Through computer simulations, we measure the apparent viscosity as a function of droplet concentration and pressure gradient, and provide…
The freezing of colloidal suspensions is encountered in many natural and engineering processes. It can be harnessed through a process known as ice templating, to produce porous materials and composites exhibiting unique functional…
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…
We present some recent theory and simulation results addressing the phenomena of colloidal gelation at both high and low volume fractions, in the presence of short-range attractive interactions. We discuss the ability of mode-coupling…
Colloidal particles are often seen as big atoms that can be directly observed in real space. They are therefore playing an increasingly important role as model systems to study processes of interest in condensed matter physics such as…