Publications by Year: 1998

1998
Poulin, P. ; Weitz, D. A. Inverted and multiple nematic emulsions. Physical Review E 1998, 57, 626. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We investigate experimentally the structures that form when small colloidal particles are suspended in a nematic solvent. These structures are anisotropic, and their formation is driven by interactions arising from the orientational elasticity of the nematic solvent. By using inverted and multiple nematic emulsions composed of water droplets dispersed in a thermotropic liquid crystal, we identify the nature of these interactions, and demonstrate that they can be controlled by the anchoring of the liquid crystal molecules at the surfaces of the droplets. When the anchoring is normal, the droplets form linear chains, suggesting a long-range dipole-dipole attraction between the particles. By contrast, the interactions are repulsive at short range, and prevent contact of the droplets, thereby stabilizing them against coalescence. When the anchoring is planar, the droplets generate distortions that have a quadrupolar character. The resultant elastic interactions lead to more compact, but still anisotropic, clusters.
poulin1998.pdf
Krall, A. H. ; Weitz, D. A. Internal dynamics and elasticity of fractal colloidal gels. Physical Review Letters 1998, 80, 778. Publisher's VersionAbstract
The dynamic structure factor of fractal colloidal gels is shown to exhibit a stretched exponential decay to a finite plateau with an exponent of about 0.7. The value of the plateau depends on both initial particle volume fraction phi(0) and scattering wave vector. We show that this behavior results from the contribution of internal elastic modes of many length scales, and present a model which accounts for the data. From the observed plateau we determine that the very small elastic modulus scales as G similar to phi(0)(3.9), in agreement with predictions, and with direct mechanical measurements.
krall1998.pdf
Hsu, P. ; Poulin, P. ; Weitz, D. A. Rotational diffusion of monodisperse liquid crystal droplets. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 1998, 200, 182-184. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We have prepared monodisperse suspensions of nematic liquid crystal droplets in water. The droplets are stabilized by polyvinyl alcohol, a polymer that induces planar anchoring of the liquid crystal molecules at the surface of the droplets. The resultant particles exhibit strong optical anisotropy while having a spherical shape. As a consequence, the light scattering from the particles contains a strong depolarized component. We report a simple application of this feature by performing dynamic light scattering experiments to measure the rotational diffusion of colloidal spheres in a dilute suspension. (C) 1998 Academic Press.
hsu1998.pdf
Gisler, T. ; Weitz, D. A. Tracer microrheology in complex fluids. Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science 1998, 3 586-592. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Recent results suggest that the motion of colloidal particles can be interpreted in terms of the viscoelasticity of the surrounding medium. New experimental techniques to extend these probe measurements and new methods for data interpretation have been developed.