Equilibrium route to colloidal gelation: mixtures of hard-sphere-like colloids.
The binodals and the nonergodicity lines of a binary mixture of hard-sphere-like particles with a large size ratio are computed for studying the interplay between dynamic arrest and phase separation in depletion-driven colloidal mixtures. Contrary to the case of hard core plus short-range effective attraction, physical gelation without competition with the fluid-phase separation can occur in such mixtures. This behavior due to the oscillations in the depletion potential should concern all simple mixtures with a nonideal depletant, justifying further studies of their dynamic properties.
Germain
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Laboratoire de Physique des Liquides et Milieux Complexes, Faculté des Sciences et Technologie, Université Paris Est (Créteil), 61 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil Cedex, France.
Amokrane
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