No Arabic abstract
We investigate the heterogeneous dynamics in a model, where chemical gelation and glass transition interplay, focusing on the dynamical susceptibility. Two independent mechanisms give raise to the correlations, which are manifested in the dynamical susceptibility: one is related to the presence of permanent clusters, while the other is due to the increase of particle crowding as the glass transition is approached. The superposition of these two mechanisms originates a variety of different behaviours. We show that these two mechanisms can be unentangled considering the wave vector dependence of the dynamical susceptibility.
The structural arrest of a polymeric suspension might be driven by an increase of the cross--linker concentration, that drives the gel transition, as well as by an increase of the polymer density, that induces a glass transition. These dynamical continuous (gel) and discontinuous (glass) transitions might interfere, since the glass transition might occur within the gel phase, and the gel transition might be induced in a polymer suspension with glassy features. Here we study the interplay of these transitions by investigating via event--driven molecular dynamics simulation the relaxation dynamics of a polymeric suspension as a function of the cross--linker concentration and the monomer volume fraction. We show that the slow dynamics within the gel phase is characterized by a long sub-diffusive regime, which is due both to the crowding as well as to the presence of a percolating cluster. In this regime, the transition of structural arrest is found to occur either along the gel or along the glass line, depending on the length scale at which the dynamics is probed. Where the two line meet there is no apparent sign of higher order dynamical singularity. Logarithmic behavior typical of $A_{3}$ singularity appear inside the gel phase along the glass transition line. These findings seem to be related to the results of the mode coupling theory for the $F_{13}$ schematic model.
In this study, micro-droplets are placed on thin, glassy, free-standing films where the Laplace pressure of the droplet deforms the free-standing film, creating a bulge. The films tension is modulated by changing temperature continuously from well below the glass transition into the melt state of the film. The contact angle of the liquid droplet with the planar film as well as the angle of the bulge with the film are measured and found to be consistent with the contact angles predicted by a force balance at the contact line.
Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) measurements were performed on colloidal suspensions of Laponitetextsuperscript{textregistered} at different concentrations in the range $C_text{w}= (1.5{div}3.0)$%. The slowing down of the dynamics induced by aging was monitored by following the temporal evolution of autocorrelation functions at different concentrations towards the gel and glass transition. Exploiting analogies with supercooled liquids approaching their glass transitions, an Angell plot for the structural relaxation times was drawn. Finally, the fragility of Laponitetextsuperscript{textregistered} suspensions at different concentrations, in different solvents, at two salt concentrations and with the addition of a polymer was reported and discussed.
The morphology and the microscopic internal dynamics of a bidimensional gel formed by spontaneous aggregation of gold nanoparticles confined at the water surface are investigated by a suite of techniques, including grazing-incidence x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (GI-XPCS). The range of concentrations studied spans across the percolation transition for the formation of the gel. The dynamical features observed by GI-XPCS are interpreted in view of the results of microscopical imaging; an intrinsic link between the mechanical modulus and internal dynamics is demonstrated for all the concentrations. Our work presents, to the best of our knowledge, the first example of a transition from stretched to compressed correlation function actively controlled by quasistatically varying the relevant thermodynamic variable. Moreover, by applying a model proposed time ago by Duri and Cipelletti [A. Duri and L. Cipelletti, Europhys. Lett. 76, 972 (2006)] we are able to build a novel master curve for the shape parameter, whose scaling factor allows us to quantify a long time displacement length. This characteristic length is shown to converge, as the concentration is increased, to the short time localization length determined by pseudo Debye-Waller analysis of the initial contrast. Finally, the intrinsic dynamics of the system are then compared with that induced by means of a delicate mechanical perturbation applied to the interface.
Physical properties of out of equilibrium soft materials depend on time as well as deformation history. In this work we propose to transform this major shortcoming into gain by applying controlled deformation field to tailor the rheological properties. We take advantage of the fact that deformation field of a certain magnitude can prevent particles in an aging soft glassy material from occupying energy wells up to a certain depth, thereby populating only the deeper wells. We employ two soft glassy materials with dissimilar microstructures and demonstrate that increase in strength of deformation field while aging leads to narrowing of spectrum of relaxation times. We believe that, in principle, this philosophy can be universally applied to different kinds of glassy materials by changing nature and strength of impetus.