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Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Experimental observation of structural crossover in binary mixtures of colloidal hard spheres
Jörg Baumgartl1, Roel P A Dullens, Marjolein Dijkstra
12. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany. j.baumgartl@physik.uni-stuttgart.de
Abstract:
Using confocal microscopy, we investigate the structure of binary mixtures of colloidal hard spheres with size ratio q=0.61. As a function of the packing fraction of the two particle species, we observe a marked change of the dominant wavelength in the pair-correlation function. This behavior is in excellent agreement with a recently predicted structural crossover in such mixtures. In addition, the repercussions of structural crossover on the real-space structure of a binary fluid are analyzed. We suggest a relation between crossover and the lateral extension of networks containing only equally-sized particles that are connected by nearest-neighbor bonds. This is supported by Monte Carlo simulations which are performed at different packing fractions and size ratios.
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