Related papers: Colloidal gelation with variable attraction energy
We investigated the viscoelastic properties of colloid-polymer mixtures at intermediate colloid volume fraction and varying polymer concentrations, thereby tuning the attractive interactions. Within the examined range of polymer…
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…
Colloidal gels have unique mechanical and transport properties that stem from their bicontinous nature, in which a colloidal network is intertwined with a viscous solvent, and have found numerous applications in foods, cosmetics,…
We report on the differences between colloidal systems left to evolve in the earth's gravitational field and the same systems for which a slow continuous rotation averaged out the effects of particle sedimentation on a distance scale small…
We study the sedimentation of colloidal gels by using a combination of light scattering, polarimetry and video imaging. The asymptotic concentration profiles $\varphi(z,t\rightarrow \infty)$ exhibit remarkable scaling properties: profiles…
We study colloidal gels formed by competing electrostatic repulsion and short-range attraction by means of extensive numerical simulations under external shear. We show that, upon varying the repulsion strength, the gel structure and its…
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…
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…
Using molecular dynamics computer simulations we investigate the structural and dynamical properties of a simple model for a colloidal gel at low volume fraction. We find that at low T the system is forming an open percolating cluster,…
We systematically study the relationship between equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase diagrams of a system of short-ranged attractive colloids. Using Monte Carlo and Brownian dynamics simulations we find a window of enhanced…
Within the mode-coupling theory for ideal glass-transitions, the mean-squared displacement and the correlation function for density fluctuations are evaluated for a colloidal liquid of particles interacting with a square-well potential for…
Starting from configurations having homogeneous spatial density, we study kinetics in a two-dimensional system of inelastically colliding hard particles, a popular model for cooling granular matter. Following an initial time period, the…
Attractive colloids diffuse and aggregate to form gels, solid-like particle networks suspended in a fluid. Gravity is known to strongly impact the stability of gels once they are formed. However, its effect on the process of gel formation…
Using molecular dynamics computer simulations we investigate the aging dynamics of a gel. We start from a fractal structure generated by the DLCA-DEF algorithm, onto which we then impose an interaction potential consisting of a short-range…
Predicting the mechanical response of the soft gel materials under external deformation is of paramount importance in many areas, such as foods, pharmaceuticals, solid-liquid separations, cosmetics, aerogels and drug delivery. Most of the…
We report numerical results for the effective potential arising between two colloids immersed in a self-assembling cosolute which forms reversible clusters. The potential is evaluated at cosolute state points with different densities and…
Within the framework of the mode coupling theory (MCT) of structural relaxation, mechanisms and properties of non-ergodicity transitions in rather dilute suspensions of colloidal particles characterized by strong short-ranged attractions…
The Diffusion-Limited Cluster-Cluster Aggregation (DLCA) model is modified by including cluster deformations using the {\it bond fluctuation} algorithm. From 3$d$ computer simulations, it is shown that, below a given threshold value $c_g$…
Nanocrystal gelation provides a powerful framework to translate nanoscale properties into bulk materials and to engineer emergent properties through the assembled microstructure. However, many established gelation strategies rely on…
We present a simple model to account for the rheological behavior observed in recent experiments on micellar gels. The model combines attachment-detachment kinetics with stretching due to shear, and shows well-defined jammed and flowing…