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Glasslike arrest in spinodal decomposition as a route to colloidal gelation
S Manley1, H M Wyss, K Miyazaki
1Department of Physics & DEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
Colloid-polymer mixtures can undergo spinodal decomposition into colloid-rich and colloid-poor regions. Gelation results when interconnected colloid-rich regions solidify. We show that this occurs when these regions undergo a glass transition, leading to dynamic arrest of the spinodal decomposition. The characteristic length scale of the gel decreases with increasing quench depth, and the nonergodicity parameter exhibits a pronounced dependence on scattering vector. Mode coupling theory gives a good description of the dynamics, provided we use the full static structure as input.
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