Colloidal gelation with variable attraction energy

Abstract

We present an approximation scheme to the master kinetic equations for aggregation and gelation with thermal breakup in colloidal systems with variable attraction energy. With the cluster fractal dimension $d_f$ as the only phenomenological parameter, rich physical behavior is predicted. The viscosity, the gelation time and the cluster size are predicted in closed form analytically as a function of time, initial volume fraction and attraction energy by combining the reversible clustering kinetics with an approximate hydrodynamic model. The fractal dimension $d_f$ modulates the time evolution of cluster size, lag time and gelation time and of the viscosity. The gelation transition is strongly nonequilibrium and time-dependent in the unstable region of the state diagram of colloids where the association rate is larger than the dissociation rate. Only upon approaching conditions where the initial association and the dissociation rates are comparable for all species (which is a condition for the detailed balance to be satisfied) aggregation can occur with $d_f=3$. In this limit, homogeneous nucleation followed by Lifshitz-Slyozov coarsening is recovered. In this limited region of the state diagram the macroscopic gelation process is likely to be driven by large spontaneous fluctuations associated with spinodal decomposition.

References in corpus (16)

• Jamming at Zero Temperature and Zero Applied Stress: the Epitome of Disorder
• Colloidal Gels: Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Routes
• Approximate analytical description of the nonaffine response of amorphous solids
• Glasslike Arrest in Spinodal Decomposition as a Route to Colloidal Gelation
• Scaling of dynamics with the range of interaction in short-range attractive colloids
• A cluster mode-coupling approach to weak gelation in attractive colloids
• Competition of percolation and phase separation in a fluid of adhesive hard spheres
• The rheology of hard sphere suspensions at arbitrary volume fractions: An improved differential viscosity model
• Elasticity of arrested short-ranged attractive colloids: homogeneous and heterogeneous glasses
• A closer look at arrested spinodal decomposition in protein solutions
• The jamming transition and new percolation universality classes in particulate systems with attraction
• Length scale dependent relaxation in colloidal gels
• Quantifying the Reversible Association of Thermosensitive Nanoparticles
• Shear-driven solidification of dilute colloidal suspensions
• A unifying model for chemical and colloidal gels
• Kramers rate theory of ionization and dissociation of bound states

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Kinetics of spontaneous filament nucleation via oligomers: insights from theory and simulation
• Microscopic Origin of the Hofmeister Effect in Gelation Kinetics of Colloidal Silica
• Reversible Formation of Thermoresponsive Binary Particle Gels with Tunable Structural and Mechanical Properties
• Colloidal Gelation with Non-Sticky Particles
• Gel-Sol Transition of Thermoresponsive Poly(vinyl alcohol) Solution: Validation of the Universal Critical Scaling Relations
• Brownian motion of droplets induced by thermal noise
• Slow dynamics and time-composition superposition in gels of cellulose nanocrystals