Related papers: Mechanics and structure of carbon black gels under…
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…
Colloidal gels possess a memory of previous shear events, both steady and oscillatory. This memory, embedded in the microstructure, affects the mechanical response of the gel, and therefore enables precise tuning of the material properties…
Suspensions of attractive particles form space-spanning networks that endow the suspension with solid-like behavior at rest. The microstructure of these colloidal gels depends sensitively on the shear history and on the path followed across…
In recent years, significant effort has been devoted to developing smart materials whose mechanical properties can adapt under physical stimuli. Particulate colloidal gels, which behave as solids but can also flow under stress, have emerged…
We report on the response of a yield stress material, namely a colloidal gel made of attractive carbon black particles, submitted to large amplitude oscillatory shear stress (LAOStress). At a constant stress amplitude well below its…
Locally (re)structuring colloidal gels $\unicode{x2013}$ micron-sized particles forming a connected network with arrested dynamics $\unicode{x2013}$ enables precise tuning of the micromechanical and -rheological properties of the system. A…
We report measurements of the frequency-dependent shear moduli of aging colloidal systems that evolve from a purely low-viscosity liquid to a predominantly elastic glass or gel. Using microrheology, we measure the local complex shear…
Colloidal gels are out of equilibrium soft solids composed of attractive Brownian particles that form a space-spanning network at low volume fractions. The elastic properties of these systems result from the network microstructure, which is…
We examine microstructural and mechanical changes which occur during oscillatory shear flow and reformation after flow cessation of an intermediate volume fraction colloidal gel using rheometry and Brownian Dynamics (BD) simulations. A…
We introduce a novel apparatus designed for stress-controlled rheometers to perform simultaneous rheological and electrical measurements on strongly conductive complex fluids under shear. By means of a non-toxic liquid metal at room…
Colloid-polymer hydrogels are encountered in various applications, from flow batteries to drug delivery. Here, we investigate hydrogels composed of hydrophobic colloidal soot particles -- carbon black (CB) -- and carboxymethylcellulose…
In this work a continuum model for high frequency poroelastic longitudinal waves in hydrogels is presented. A viscoelastic force describing the interaction between the polymer network and the bounded water present in such materials is…
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…
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…
The rheological behavior of colloidal dispersions is of paramount importance in a wide range of applications, including construction materials, energy storage systems and food industry products. These dispersions consistently exhibit…
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…
Ultrasound-induced degradation of soft polymeric colloids, like microgels, as well as a controlled drug release enabled by mechanoresponsive bonds, has recently attracted considerable attention. However, most examples in the literature…
The elastic properties of a soft matter material can be greatly altered by the presence of solid inclusions whose microscopic properties, such as their size and interactions, can have a dramatic effect. In order to shed light on these…
The effects of particle roughness and short-ranged non-central forces on colloidal gels are studied using computer simulations in which particles experience a sinusoidal variation in energy as they rotate. The number of minima $n$ and…
We report contactless measurements of the viscoelastic rheological properties of soft gels. The experiments are performed using a colloidal-probe Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) in a liquid environment and in dynamic mode. The mechanical…