title: Glasslike arrest in spinodal decomposition as a route to colloidal gelation.
abstract: Colloid-polymer mixtures can undergo spinodal decomposition into colloid-rich and colloid-poor regions. Gelation results when interconnected colloid-rich regions solidify. We show that this occurs when these regions undergo a glass transition, leading to dynamic arrest of the spinodal decomposition. The characteristic length scale of the gel decreases with increasing quench depth, and the nonergodicity parameter exhibits a pronounced dependence on scattering vector. Mode coupling theory gives a good description of the dynamics, provided we use the full static structure as input.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & DEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Manley
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Wyss
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Conrad
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Trappe
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Reichman
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Weitz
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry*; D005898:Glass / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D044367:Phase Transition; D044366:Transition Temperature
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids; D005782:Gels