Limits to gelation in colloidal aggregation

Citation:

Manley, S. ; Cipelletti, L. ; Trappe, V. ; Bailey, A. E. ; Christianson, R. J. ; Gasser, U. ; Prasad, V. ; Segre, P. N. ; Doherty, M. P. ; Sankaran, S. ; et al. Limits to gelation in colloidal aggregation. Physical Review Letters 2004, 93, 108302. Copy at http://www.tinyurl.com/mvlvld4
manley2004.pdf337 KB

Abstract:

We show that the dynamics of large fractal colloid aggregates are well described by a combination of translational and rotational diffusion and internal elastic fluctuations, allowing both the aggregate size and internal elasticity to be determined by dynamic light scattering. The comparison of results obtained in microgravity and on Earth demonstrates that cluster growth is limited by gravity-induced restructuring. In the absence of gravity, thermal fluctuations ultimately inhibit fractal growth and set the fundamental limitation to the lowest volume fraction which will gel.

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Last updated on 05/14/2021