Colloidal systems with competing interactions: from an arrested repulsive cluster phase to a gel

Abstract

We report an extensive numerical study of a charged colloidal system with competing short-range depletion attraction and long-range electrostatic repulsion. By analizing the cluster properties, we identify two distinct regions in the phase diagram: a state composed of stable finite-size clusters, whose relative interactions are dominated by long-range repulsion, and a percolating network. Both states are found to dynamically arrest at low temperatures, providing evidence of the existence of two distinct non-ergodic states in these systems: a Wigner glass of clusters and a gel.

10 figures, to be published in Soft Matter

References in corpus (9)

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Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Equilibrium gels of limited valence colloids
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• Interactions and design rules for assembly of porous colloidal mesophases
• From compact to fractal crystalline clusters in concentrated systems of monodisperse hard spheres
• The effect of inter-cluster interactions on the structure of colloidal clusters
• Electrostatic Interactions between Janus Particles
• Tuning the rheological behavior of colloidal gels through competing interactions
• Universal reshaping of arrested colloidal gels via active doping
• A Minimal description of morphological hierarchy in two-dimensional aggregates
• Structural and dynamical properties of gel networks
• Viscoelastic multiscaling in immersed networks
• Clustering in quasi-two-dimensional dispersions of Brownian particles with competitive interactions: Phase diagram and structural properties
• Characterization and Efficient Monte Carlo Sampling of Disordered Microphases
• Solution of Disordered Microphases in the Bethe approximation
• Phonon transport properties of particulate physical gels