Orientational order in a glass of charged platelets with a concentration gradient
Författare
Summary, in English
Colloidal dispersions of anisometric particles can display dynamical arrest and ordering involving both translational and rotational degrees of freedom. We show that orientational order can develop in glassy colloidal dispersions of charged platelets when a concentration gradient is imposed through solvent evaporation. Our model system of Laponite (LRD) platelets in deionized water has been extensively studied for its ergodic to non-ergodic transitions, and the existence of an underlying isotropic-nematic phase transition has been a subject of debate. We use small-angle X-ray scattering, dynamical light scattering and birefringence to show that the orientational order we observe does not result from an underlying, uniquely determined equilibrium state with orientational order, but from plastic deformation of the colloidal glass.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2013
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
9999-10004
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Soft Matter
Volym
9
Issue
42
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Royal Society of Chemistry
Ämne
- Natural Sciences
- Physical Sciences
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1744-6848