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Directed percolation identified as equilibrium pre-transition towards non-equilibrium arrested gel states
- Source :
- Nature Communications, Nature Communications, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2016)
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- The macroscopic properties of gels arise from their slow dynamics and load-bearing network structure, which are exploited by nature and in numerous industrial products. However, a link between these structural and dynamical properties has remained elusive. Here we present confocal microscopy experiments and simulations of gel-forming colloid–polymer mixtures. They reveal that gel formation is preceded by continuous and directed percolation. Both transitions lead to system-spanning networks, but only directed percolation results in extremely slow dynamics, ageing and a shrinking of the gel that resembles synaeresis. Therefore, dynamical arrest in gels is found to be linked to a structural transition, namely directed percolation, which is quantitatively associated with the mean number of bonded neighbours. Directed percolation denotes a universality class of transitions. Our study hence connects gel formation to a well-developed theoretical framework, which now can be exploited to achieve a detailed understanding of arrested gels.<br />Gels exhibit very slow dynamics, for which a structural reason remains elusive. Here, Kohl et al. show the gel formation is accompanied by a succession of continuous and directed percolation, with only the latter found to lead to the arrested dynamics.
- Subjects :
- Materials science
Science
education
General Physics and Astronomy
Network structure
Nanotechnology
02 engineering and technology
01 natural sciences
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Article
Quantitative Biology::Cell Behavior
Quantitative Biology::Subcellular Processes
0103 physical sciences
Gel, Colloid, Percolation, Microscopy, Simulation
Structural transition
Soft matter
010306 general physics
Multidisciplinary
General Chemistry
Renormalization group
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
Directed percolation
Condensed Matter::Soft Condensed Matter
Chemical physics
Self-assembly
0210 nano-technology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Communications, Nature Communications, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2016)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....555ae9446e8cb0a1c2dd0322689967f6