Elastic properties of colloidal solids with disorder

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical and experimental methods for determining the elastic properties of colloidal solids, especially disordered systems like glasses, highlighting advances and challenges in the field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of density functional theory and video microscopy techniques for measuring elastic constants in colloidal and disordered solids.

Findings

Comparison of theoretical approaches to elastic constants

Introduction of video microscopy for elastic measurements

Discussion of challenges in disordered systems

Abstract

Recent progress in approaches to determine the elastic constants of solids starting from the microscopic particle interactions is reviewed. On the theoretical side, density functional theory approaches are discussed and compared to more classical ones using the actual pair potentials. On the experimental side, video microscopy has been introduced to measure the elastic constants in colloidal solids. For glasses and disordered systems, the theoretical basis is given for this novel technique, and some challenges and recent advances are reviewed.