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We show that non-entangled polymers display an elastic-like behaviour at a macroscopic scale (probed at some 0.100 mm thickness) up to at least hundred degrees above the glass transition temperature. This observation, found under…
Water has many anomalous properties compared to "simple" liquids, and these anomalies are typically enhanced in supercooled water. While numerous models have been proposed, including the liquid-liquid critical point, the singularity-free…
It is commonly accepted that shear waves do not propagate in a liquid medium. The shear wave energy is supposed to dissipate nearly instantaneously. This statement originates from the difficulty to access static shear stress in macroscopic…
Cellulose ethers represent a class of water-soluble polymers widely utilized across diverse sectors, spanning from healthcare to the construction industry. This experimental study specifically delves into aqueous suspensions of…
We present an experiment on forced convection where a previously heated object is cooled under the effect of a controlled stream of air. We consider a square copper plate in which temperature variations can be considered negligible and we…
We compare the slow dynamics of irreversible gels, colloidal gels, glasses and spin glasses by analyzing the behavior of the so called non-linear dynamical susceptibility, a quantity usually introduced to quantitatively characterize the…
We present a study on swelling-induced circumferential buckling of tubular shaped gels. Inhomogeneous stress develops as gel swells under mechanical constraints, which gives rise to spontaneous buckling instability without external force.…
One of water's unsolved puzzles is the question of what determines the lowest temperature to which it can be cooled before freezing to ice. The supercooled liquid has been probed experimentally to near the homogeneous nucleation temperature…
Structuring wheat gluten proteins into gels with tunable mechanical properties would provide more versatility for the production of plant protein-rich food products. Gluten, a strongly elastic protein material insoluble in water, is hardly…
We experimentally revisite the flow down an inclined plane of dense granular suspensions, with particles of sizes in the micron range, for which thermal fluctuations cannot be ignored. Using confocal microscopy on a miniaturized set-up, we…
Using a general model for the equilibrium dynamics of supercooled liquids, I compute from molecular properties the emergent length and time scales that govern the nonequilibrium relaxation behavior of amorphous ice prepared by rapid…
We consider the sedimentation of a colloidal gel under confinement in the direction of gravity. The confinement allows us to compare directly experiments and computer simulations, for the same system size in the vertical direction. The…
The proneness of water to crystallize is a major obstacle to understanding its putative exotic behavior in the supercooled state. It also represents a strong practical limitation to cryopreservation of biological systems. Adding some…
Colloidal gels, where nanoscale particles aggregate into an elastic yet fragile network, are at the heart of materials that combine specific optical, electrical and mechanical properties. Tailoring the viscoelastic features of colloidal…
Granular materials do not flow homogeneously like fluids when submitted to external stress,but often form rigid regions that are separated by narrow shear bands where the material yields and flows. This shear localization impacts their…
Concatenation and equilibrium swelling of Olympic gels, which are composed of entangled cyclic polymers, is studied by Monte Carlo Simulations. The average number of concatenated molecules per cyclic polymers, $f_n$, is found to depend on…
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 computer simulations, we identify the mechanisms causing aggregation and structural arrest of colloidal suspensions interacting with a short-ranged attraction at moderate and high densities. Two different non-ergodicity transitions…
Solutions of polymer chains are modelled using non-equilibrium Brownian dynamics simulations, with physically associative beads which form reversible crosslinks to establish a system-spanning physical gel network. Rheological properties…
Glycerol is a hygroscopic fluid that spontaneously absorbs water vapor from the atmosphere. For applications involving glycerol, care must be taken to avoid exposure to humidity, since its viscosity decreases quickly as water is absorbed.…