Local structure of percolating gels at very low volume fractions.

The formation of colloidal gels is strongly dependent on the volume fraction of the system and the strength of the interactions between the colloids. Here we explore very dilute solutions by the means of numerical simulations and show that, in the absence of hydrodynamic interactions and for sufficiently strong interactions, percolating colloidal gels can be realised at very low values of the volume fraction. Characterising the structure of the network of the arrested material we find that, when reducing the volume fraction, the gels are dominated by low-energy local structures, analogous to the isolated clusters of the interaction potential. Changing the strength of the interaction allows us to tune the compactness of the gel as characterised by the fractal dimension, with low interaction strength favouring more chain-like structures.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Journal of Chemical Physics

• Publication date

  2016-08-17

• Fields of study

  Chemistry, Medicine, Materials Science, Physics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1063/1.4973351arXiv 1608.05029PMID 28063435
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Colloidal Dispersions

  2019cited by this paper
• Fractal: A New Paradigm for High-Performance Proof-of-Stake Blockchains

  2019cited by this paper
• Probing Colloidal Gels at Multiple Length Scales: The Role of Hydrodynamics.

  2015cited by this paper
• A micro-mechanical study of coarsening and rheology of colloidal gels: Cage building, cage hopping, and Smoluchowski's ratchet

  2014cited by this paper
• The nature of the glass and gel transitions in sticky spheres

  2014cited by this paper
• Importance of many-body orientational correlations in the physical description of liquids.

  2013cited by this paper
• Nanoparticle solutions as adhesives for gels and biological tissues

  2013cited by this paper
• Dynamical arrest in adhesive hard-sphere dispersions driven by rigidity percolation.

  2013cited by this paper
• Identification of structure in condensed matter with the topological cluster classification.

  2013cited by this paper
• Glass transition by gelation in a phase separating binary alloy.

  2013cited by this paper
• Fragmentation and limits to dynamical scaling in viscous coarsening: an interrupted in situ x-ray tomographic study.

  2013cited by this paper
• Arrested demixing opens route to bigels

  2012cited by this paper
• The role of quench rate in colloidal gels.

  2012cited by this paper
• Charge-controlled metastable liquid-liquid phase separation in protein solutions as a universal pathway towards crystallization

  2012cited by this paper
• Role of isostaticity and load-bearing microstructure in the elasticity of yielded colloidal gels

  2012cited by this paper
• Mesoporous organohydrogels from thermogelling photocrosslinkable nanoemulsions.

  2012cited by this paper
• Shear-driven solidification of dilute colloidal suspensions.

  2011cited by this paper
• Dynamical arrest transition in nanoparticle dispersions with short-range interactions.

  2011cited by this paper
• Predicting the self-assembly of a model colloidal crystal

  2011cited by this paper
• Influence of the glass transition on the liquid-gas spinodal decomposition.

  2011cited by this paper
• Key role of hydrodynamic interactions in colloidal gelation.

  2010cited by this paper
• Competing interactions in arrested States of colloidal clays.

  2010cited by this paper
• Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering Visualization and analysis of atomistic simulation data with OVITO – the Open Visualization Tool

  2009cited by this paper
• A structural comparison of models of colloid–polymer mixtures

  2009cited by this paper
• Multi-Particle Collision Dynamics -- a Particle-Based Mesoscale Simulation Approach to the Hydrodynamics of Complex Fluids

  2008cited by this paper
• Direct Observation of Low-Energy Clusters in a Colloidal Gel

  2008cited by this paper
• Direct observation of a local structural mechanism for dynamic arrest.

  2008cited by this paper
• Gelation of particles with short-range attraction

  2008cited by this paper
• Colloidal gels: equilibrium and non-equilibrium routes

  2007cited by this paper
• IOP PUBLISHING JOURNAL OF PHYSICS: CONDENSED MATTER

  2007cited by this paper
• Structure and dynamics of colloidal depletion gels: coincidence of transitions and heterogeneity.

  2006cited by this paper
• Gels and glasses in a single system: evidence for an intricate free-energy landscape of glassy materials.

  2006cited by this paper
• Critical behavior in colloid-polymer mixtures: theory and simulation.

  2006cited by this paper
• Network-forming phase separation of colloidal suspensions

  2005cited by this paper
• Slow dynamics in glassy soft matter

  2005cited by this paper
• Limits to gelation in colloidal aggregation.

  2004cited by this paper
• Theory and simulation of gelation, arrest and yielding in attracting colloids

  2004cited by this paper
• Glasslike arrest in spinodal decomposition as a route to colloidal gelation.

  2004cited by this paper
• Scaling of dynamics with the range of interaction in short-range attractive colloids.

  2004cited by this paper
• Percolation, gelation and dynamical behaviour in colloids

  2004cited by this paper
• Hydrogels for tissue engineering: scaffold design variables and applications.

  2003cited by this paper
• Cluster mode-coupling approach to weak gelation in attractive colloids.

  2003cited by this paper
• Competition of percolation and phase separation in a fluid of adhesive hard spheres.

  2003cited by this paper
• Equilibrium cluster phases and low-density arrested disordered states: the role of short-range attraction and long-range repulsion.

  2003cited by this paper
• Micro total analysis systems. 2. Analytical standard operations and applications.

  2002cited by this paper
• The physics of a model colloid–polymer mixture

  2002cited by this paper
• EFFECTIVE INTERACTIONS IN SOFT CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS

  2001cited by this paper
• Extended corresponding-states behavior for particles with variable range attractions

  2000cited by this paper
• Effective Interactions, Structure, and Isothermal Compressibility of Colloidal Suspensions

  2000cited by this paper
• Viscoelastic model of phase separation in colloidal suspensions and emulsions.

  1999cited by this paper
• STRUCTURAL RELAXATION IN MORSE CLUSTERS : ENERGY LANDSCAPES

  1998cited by this paper
• Transient gelation by spinodal decomposition in colloid-polymer mixtures

  1997cited by this paper
• Structural consequences of the range of the interatomic potential A menagerie of clusters

  1997cited by this paper
• Fast parallel algorithms for short-range molecular dynamics

  1993cited by this paper
• Spinodal-type dynamics in fractal aggregation of colloidal clusters.

  1992cited by this paper
• Colloidal Dispersions: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  1989cited by this paper
• Fractal approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional surface roughness

  1986cited by this paper
• Limits of the fractal dimension for irreversible kinetic aggregation of gold colloids.

  1985cited by this paper
• Fractal Geometry of Nature

  1984cited by this paper
• Fractal structures formed by kinetic aggregation of aqueous gold colloids

  1984cited by this paper
• Diffusion-controlled cluster formation in 2—6-dimensional space

  1983cited by this paper

• Field-driven reversible networks from colloidal rods.

  2025cites this paper
• Shape‐Preserving Metallic Gels with Applications as Electrodes for Liquid Metal Batteries

  2025cites this paper
• Cyclically sheared colloidal gels: structural change and delayed failure time

  2025cites this paper
• Capturing Dynamic Assembly of Nanoscale Proteins During Network Formation

  2024cites this paper
• Pairing-specific microstructure in depletion gels of bidisperse colloids.

  2024cites this paper
• Active particles knead three-dimensional gels into open crumbs

  2024cites this paper
• Yielding in colloidal gels: From local structure to mesoscale strand breakage and macroscopic failure.

  2024cites this paper
• Active Particles Knead Three-Dimensional Gels into Porous Structures.

  2024cites this paper
• Predicting rigidity and connectivity percolation in disordered particulate networks using graph neural networks.

  2024cites this paper
• Distinct elastic properties and their origins in glasses and gels

  2023influential citation
• Structural criterion for the onset of rigidity in a colloidal gel.

  2023cites this paper
• On the dynamically arrested states of equilibrium and non-equilibrium gels: a comprehensive Brownian dynamics study

  2022cites this paper
• Microscopic structural origin behind slowing down of colloidal phase separation approaching gelation.

  2022cites this paper
• Response to "Comment on 'Communication: Is directed percolation in colloid-polymer mixtures linked to dynamic arrest?'" [J. Chem. Phys. 157, 027101 (2022)].

  2022cites this paper
• Guiding the self-assembly of colloidal diamond.

  2022cites this paper
• Location of the gel-like boundary in patchy colloidal dispersions: Rigidity percolation, structure, and particle dynamics.

  2021cites this paper
• Real space analysis of colloidal gels: triumphs, challenges and future directions

  2021cites this paper
• Diffusion, phase behavior, and gelation in a two-dimensional layer of colloids in osmotic equilibrium with a polymer reservoir.

  2021cites this paper
• Universal Gelation of Metal Oxide Nanocrystals via Depletion Attractions.

  2020cites this paper
• Tuning the rheological behavior of colloidal gels through competing interactions

  2020cites this paper
• Computer simulations of colloidal gels: how hindered particle rotation affects structure and rheology.

  2019cites this paper
• The influence of surface roughness on the adhesive interactions and phase behavior of suspensions of calcite nanoparticles.

  2019cites this paper
• Plasticity in colloidal gel strands.

  2019cites this paper
• Coupling between criticality and gelation in "sticky" spheres: a structural analysis.

  2018cites this paper
• Vitrification and gelation in sticky spheres.

  2018cites this paper
• Opposed flow focusing: evidence of a second order jetting transition.

  2018cites this paper
• Communication: Is directed percolation in colloid-polymer mixtures linked to dynamic arrest?

  2018cites this paper
• Structural covariance in the hard sphere fluid.

  2017cites this paper