Time-dependent strength of colloidal gels.
Colloidal silica gels are shown to stiffen with time, as demonstrated by both dynamic light scattering and bulk rheological measurements. Their elastic moduli increase as a power law with time, independent of particle volume fraction; however, static light scattering indicates that there are no large-scale structural changes. We propose that increases in local elasticity arising from bonding between neighboring colloidal particles can account for the strengthening of the network, while preserving network structure.
Manley
S
S
Department of Physics & DEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Davidovitch
Benny
B
Davies
Neil R
NR
Cipelletti
L
L
Bailey
A E
AE
Christianson
R J
RJ
Gasser
U
U
Prasad
V
V
Segre
P N
PN
Doherty
M P
MP
Sankaran
S
S
Jankovsky
A L
AL
Shiley
B
B
Bowen
J
J
Eggers
J
J
Kurta
C
C
Lorik
T
T
Weitz
D A
DA