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Natural rubber is obtained by processing natural rubber latex, a liquid colloidal suspension that rapidly gels after exudation from the tree. We prepared such gels by acidification, in a large range of particle volume fractions, and…
Sizable glass formers feature numerous unique properties and potential applications, but many questions regarding their glass transition dynamics have not been resolved yet. Here we analyzed structural relaxation times measured as a…
Glycerol acts as a natural cryoprotectant by depressing the temperature of ice nucleation and slowing down the dynamics of water mixtures. In this work we characterize dynamics -- diffusion, viscosity, and hydrogen-bond dynamics -- as well…
The occurrence of non-equilibrium transitions between arrested states has recently emerged as an intriguing issue in the field of soft glassy materials. The existence of one such transition has been suggested for aging colloidal clays…
The water flow through the poly(acrylamide) gel under a constant water pressure is measured by newly designed apparatus. The time evolution of the water flow in the gel, is calculated based on the collective diffusion model of the polymer…
Filler-induced strengthening is ubiquitous in materials science and is particularly well-established in polymeric nanocomposites. Despite having similar constituents, colloidal gels with solid filling exhibit distinct rheology, which is of…
The reversible phase transition from hydrochloric-acid-doped ice VI to its hydrogen-ordered counterpart ice XV is followed using differential scanning calorimetry. Upon cooling at ambient pressure fast hydrogen ordering is observed at first…
The glass transition GT is usually thought of as a structural arrest that occurs during the cooling of a liquid, or sometimes a plastic crystal, trapping a metastable state of the system before it can recrystallize to stabler forms1. This…
We solve exactly and describe in detail a simplified scalar model for the low frequency shear rheology of foams, emulsions, slurries, etc. [P. Sollich, F. Lequeux, P. Hebraud, M.E. Cates, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2020 (1997)]. The model…
We present Molecular Dynamics simulations of the thermal glass transition in a dense model polymer liquid. We performed a comparative study of both constant volume and constant pressure cooling of the polymer melt. Great emphasis was laid…
We study the finite-shear-rate rheology of disordered solids by means of molecular dynamics simulations in two dimensions. By systematically varying the damping magnitude $\zeta$ in the low-temperature limit, we identify two well defined…
A transition from solid-like to liquid-like behavior occurs when colloidal gels are subjected to a prolonged exposure to a steady shear. This phenomenon, which is characterized by a yielding point, is found to be strongly dependent on the…
Cytoskeletal gels are prototyped to reproduce the mechanical contraction of the cytoskeleton in-vitro. They are composed of a polymer network (backbone), swollen by the presence of a liquid solvent, and active molecules (molecular motors,…
We introduce a microscopically realistic model of a physical gel and use computer simulations to study its static and dynamic properties at thermal equilibrium. The phase diagram comprises a sol phase, a coexistence region ending at a…
We study the effects of charge-regulated acid/base equilibrium on the swelling of polyelectrolyte gels, by considering a combination of the Poisson-Boltzmann theory and a two-site charge-regulation model based on the Langmuir adsorption…
Several methods for measuring the compressive strength of strong particulate gels are available, including the centrifuge method, whereby the strength as a function of volume-fraction is obtained parametrically from the dependence of…
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…
A generic expectation for gas accreted by high mass haloes is that it is shock heated to the virial temperature of the halo. In low mass haloes, or at high redshift, however, the gas cooling rate is sufficiently rapid that an accretion…
The interplay between the structural relaxation and the rheological response of a binary LJ glass former is studied via MD simulations. In the quiescent state, the model is well known for its sluggish dynamics and a two step relaxation of…
We investigate the dynamics of alginate gels, an important class of biopolymer-based viscoelastic materials, by combining mechanical tests and non-conventional, time-resolved light scattering methods. Two relaxation modes are observed upon…