Related papers: How to reduce the crack density in drying colloida…
Cracking of suspensions during drying is a common problem. While additives, e.g. binders and surfactants, can mitigate this problem, some applications, such as printing conductive pastes or sintering green bodies, do not lend themselves to…
We investigate the 3D structure and drying dynamics of complex mixtures of emulsion droplets and colloidal particles, using confocal microscopy. Air invades and rapidly collapses large emulsion droplets, forcing their contents into the…
We study a theoretical model of mud cracks, that is, the fracture patterns resulting from the contraction with drying in a thin layer of a mixture of granules and water. In this model, we consider the slip on the bottom of this layer and…
We experimentally study the formation of surface patterns in grafted hydrogel films of nanometer-to-micrometer thicknesses during imbibition-driven swelling followed by evaporation-driven shrinking. Creases are known to form at the hydrogel…
Attractive colloidal gels display a solid-to-fluid transition as shear stresses above the yield stress are applied. This shear-induced transition is involved in virtually any application of colloidal gels. It is also crucial for controlling…
We present experiments and simulations on cyclically sheared colloidal gels, and probe their behaviour on several different length scales. The shearing induces structural changes in the experimental gel, changing particles' neighborhoods…
Recent experiments have shown that various structures may be formed during the evaporative dewetting of thin films of colloidal suspensions. Nano-particle deposits of strongly branched `flower-like', labyrinthine and network structures are…
We explore the Mode I fracture toughness of a polymer gel containing a semi-infinite, growing crack. First, an expression is derived for the energy release rate within the linearized, small-strain setting. This expression reveals a crack…
Phase equilibria between regions of different thickness in thin liquid films stabilized by colloidal particles are investigated using a quasi-two-dimensional thermodynamic formalism. Appropriate equilibrium conditions for the film tension,…
The evaporation of drops of colloidal suspensions plays an important role in numerous contexts, such as the production of powdered dairies, the synthesis of functional supraparticles, and virus and bacteria survival in aerosols or drops on…
We consider a model dense colloidal dispersion at the glass transition, and investigate the connection between equilibrium stress fluctuations, seen in linear shear moduli, and the shear stresses under strong flow conditions far from…
Understanding flow patterns and coupled transport phenomena during evaporation of droplets loaded with colloidal particles is central to design technical applications such as organizing proteins/DNA on a solid surface. We review recent…
A theory is presented for the onset of shear thickening in colloidal suspensions of particles, stabilized by an electrostatic repulsion. Based on an activation model a critical shear stress can be derived for the onset of shear thickening…
A simple and popular constitutive model used to describe the compressional strength of a consolidating strongly cohesive particulate gel is tested further with new experimental data. Strong cohesive particulate gels have variously been…
Flow-induced aggregation of colloidal particles leads to aggregates with fairly high fractal dimension () which are directly responsible for the observed rheological properties of sheared dispersions. We address the problem of the decrease…
The stress-induced yielding scenario of colloidal gels is investigated under rough boundary conditions by means of rheometry coupled to local velocity measurements. Under an applied shear stress, the fluidization of gels made of attractive…
Dynamical heterogeneities in a colloidal fluid close to gelation are studied by means of computer simulations. A clear distinction between some fast particles and the rest, slow ones, is observed, yielding a picture of the gel composed by…
Using self-consistent field and density-functional theories, we first investigate colloidal self-assembling of colloid/polymer films confined between two soft surfaces grafted by polymers. With the increase of colloidal concentrations, the…
We show that geometric confinement dramatically affects the shear-induced configurations of dense mono-disperse colloidal suspensions; a new structure emerges, where layers of particles buckle to stack in a more efficient packing. The…
Hypothesis: Lateral accumulation and film defects during drying of hard particle coatings is a common problem, typically solved using polymeric additives and surface active ingredients, which require further processing of the dried film.…