Related papers: Crack Patterns in Laponite Films Dried in Electros…
When a colloidal gel dries through evaporation, cracks are usually formed, which often reveal underlying processes at work during desiccation. Desiccating colloid droplets of few hundred $\mu l$ size show interesting effects of pattern…
Crack formation patterns in laponite gel are known to be strongly affected by DC electric fields. We show that AC fields produce equally remarkable patterns in a radially symmetric set-up. The character of the pattern depends crucially on…
A study of crack patterns in laponite films of different thickness is presented. Two cracking regimes are observed. The earlier with a higher rate of desiccation and shrinking has predominantly four-fold vertices in the crack network, while…
Aqueous colloidal Laponite clay suspensions transform spontaneously to a soft solid-like arrested state as its aging or waiting time increases. This article reports the rapid transformation of aqueous Laponite suspensions into soft solids…
A fascinating class of patterns, often encountered in nature as meandering cracks on rocks, dried-out fields and tectonic plates is produced by the fracture of solids. Here we report the observation and modeling of an unusual type of…
Cracks in thin layers are influenced by what lies beneath them. From buried craters to crocodile skin, crack patterns are found over an enormous range of length scales. Regardless of absolute size, their substrates can dramatically…
We have studied the effect of an external DC electric field (~kV/mm) on the rheological properties of colloidal suspensions consisting of aggregates of laponite particles in a silicone oil. Microscopy observations show that under…
We investigate the initiation of cracks in vertically freestanding water-saturated colloidal pillars constructed using a direct-write technique. Paradoxically, the cracks form during drying at the free end, far from the substrate, where the…
A drop of aqueous potato starch gel with a certain mole fraction of NaCl, when dried on a glass slide, exhibits strong segregation and intricate pattern formation phenomena. The salt forms radial dendritic crystalline aggregates near the…
We report an experimental study of the crack pattern formed during the drying of a colloidal suspension. A horizontal fiber, which provides a one dimensional, boundary-free substrate, is coated by a film of micronic thickness. The geometry…
The effect of Laponite (a synthetic clay) on the structure, thermal and water vapor barrier properties of nanocomposite gelatin films produced by casting with 0, 4.5 and 15% w Lap/w gelatin, was studied. X-ray diffraction, differential…
A theoretical study of a dielectrophoretic force, i.e. the force acting on an electrically neutral particle in the inhomogeneous electric field, which is produced by a ferroelectric domain pattern, is presented. It has been shown by several…
Polygonal desiccation crack patterns are commonly observed in natural systems. Despite their quotidian nature, it is unclear whether similar crack patterns which span orders of magnitude in length scales share the same underlying physics.…
Substrate wettability alteration induced control over crack formation process in thin colloidal films has been addressed in the present study. Colloidal nanosuspension (53nm, mean particle diameter) droplets have been subjected to natural…
In recent work, it was shown that elasticity theory can break down in amorphous solids subjected to nonuniform {\em static} loads. The elastic fields are screened by geometric dipoles; these stem from gradients of the quadrupole field…
The fracture mechanics was widely employed to explain the crack propagation in the deposition produced by drying colloidal suspension. However, more complex than conventional fracture, those cracks periodically distribute and make up a…
Amorphous solids under mechanical strains are prone to plastic responses. Recent work showed that in amorphous granular system these plastic events, that are typically quadrupolar in nature, can screen the elastic response. When the density…
-- A scientific hurdle in manufacturing solid films by drying colloidal layers is preventing them from fracturing. This paper examines how the drying rate of colloidal liquids influences the particle packing at the nanoscale in correlation…
We have investigated both experimentally and theoretically the spreading behavior of latex particles deposited on solid substrates. These particles, which are composed of cross-linked polymer chains, have an intrinsic elastic modulus. We…
Cohesive granular materials, like wet sand, retain their shape before yielding under stress. This solid-like behavior is associated with elasticity. As the loading increases, the material typically flows. However, cohesive materials can…