Observation of empty liquids and equilibrium gels in a colloidal clay
Top Cited Papers
- 12 December 2010
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Materials
- Vol. 10 (1), 56-60
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2921
Abstract
The relevance of anisotropic interactions in colloidal systems has recently emerged in the context of the rational design of new soft materials(1). Patchy colloids of different shapes, patterns and functionalities(2) are considered the new building blocks of a bottom-up approach toward the realization of self-assembled bulk materials with predefined properties(3-7). The ability to tune the interaction anisotropy will make it possible to recreate molecular structures at the nano- and micro-scales (a case with tremendous technological applications), as well as to generate new unconventional phases, both ordered and disordered. Recent theoretical studies(8) suggest that the phase diagram of patchy colloids can be significantly altered by limiting the particle coordination number (that is, valence). New concepts such as empty liquids(8)-liquid states with vanishing density-and equilibrium gels(8-10)-arrested networks of bonded particles, which do not require an underlying phase separation to form(11)-have been formulated. Yet no experimental evidence of these predictions has been provided. Here we report the first observation of empty liquids and equilibrium gels in a complex colloidal clay, and support the experimental findings with numerical simulationsKeywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Irreversible Aging Dynamics and Generic Phase Behavior of Aqueous Suspensions of LaponiteLangmuir, 2010
- Fabrication, Assembly, and Application of Patchy ParticlesMacromolecular Rapid Communications, 2010
- Structural Relaxation of a Gel Modeled by Three Body InteractionsPhysical Review Letters, 2009
- Gelation of particles with short-range attractionNature, 2008
- Gels and Glasses in a Single System: Evidence for an Intricate Free-Energy Landscape of Glassy MaterialsPhysical Review Letters, 2007
- Anisotropy of building blocks and their assembly into complex structuresNature Materials, 2007
- Cover Picture: Expanding the Genetic Code (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1/2005)Angewandte Chemie, 2004
- Phase separation and structure in a concentrated colloidal dispersion of uniform platesZeitschrift für Physik B Condensed Matter, 1999
- Statistical model for the structure and gelation of smectite clay suspensionsPhysical Review E, 1997
- Monte Carlo simulations on primitive models of water and methanolMolecular Physics, 1987