Colloidal Gelation with Non-Sticky Particles

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-sticky particles influence colloidal gelation, revealing that they confine gelation and introduce competing lengthscales, with implications for the universality of gelation behavior in composites.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical simulation study showing the dual role of non-sticky particles in controlling gelation and lengthscales, suggesting a universal mechanism across colloidal composites.

Findings

Non-sticky particles confine gelation based on an effective volume fraction.

A second lengthscale introduced by particles competes with cluster size.

The ratio of these lengthscales governs gelation dynamics.

Abstract

Colloidal gels are widely applied in industry due to their rheological character -- no flow takes place below the yield stress. Such property enables gels to maintain uniform distribution in practical formulations; otherwise, solid components may quickly sediment without the support of gel matrix. Compared with pure gels of sticky colloids, therefore, the composites of gel and non-sticky inclusions are more commonly encountered in reality. Through numerical simulations, we investigate the gelation process in such binary composites. We find that the non-sticky particles not only confine gelation in the form of an effective volume fraction, but also introduce another lengthscale that competes with the size of growing clusters in gel. The ratio of two key lengthscales in general controls the two effects. Using different gel models, we verify such a scenario within a wide range of parameter space, suggesting a potential universality in all classes of colloidal composites.