Elucidating the role of physicochemical interactions on gel rheology

Soft materials are characterized by their intricate interplay of structure, dynamics, and rheological properties. This complexity makes it challenging to accurately predict their response to shear stress. Here, we investigate how the nature of bonds - electrostatic attractions, physical entanglements, physical repulsion, and covalent bonds - affects the linear and nonlinear rheology of gels. Specifically, we determine the critical roles these bonds play in the yield transition and thixotropic recovery of gel properties through a combination of linear oscillatory deformations, serial creep divergence measurements, and time-resolved flow sweeps. Different classes of gels are prepared with nearly identical linear rheology but significantly different yield transitions and nonlinear properties post-yielding. These differences are directly related to the kinetics by which the underlying elastic networks rebuild after flow. Gels which exhibit thixotropic hysteresis are able to fully recover their yield stress over time while non-thixotropic gels possess time-independent yielding metrics. This direct comparison between thixotropy and yielding reveals the intimate relationship between these phenomena and their controlling physical mechanisms within soft, amorphous materials.