Colloidal Gelation

Colloids are microscopic particles so small that they move diffusively when dispersed in a fluid, exhibiting Brownian motion, controlled by the temperature of the system, like atoms. However, unlike atoms, colloids are big enough to see with light, so they can be probed with microscopes and laser light scattering. The interactions between atoms are fixed, dictated by quantum mechanics, but those in colloids can be very finely tuned. This makes them an ideal model system for investigating the structure and properties of all sorts of materials, constructed from colloidal particle building blocks, such as crystals, glasses, gels, fluids and gases.

Images

Publications

  1. Peter J. Lu et al., “Gelation of particles with short-range attraction” Nature. 453, 499–503 (2008). [pdf]
  2. Peter J. Lu, Jacinta C. Conrad, Hans M. Wyss, Andrew B. Schofield, David A. Weitz, “Fluids of Clusters in Attractive Colloids” Physical Review Letters. 96, 028306 (2006). [pdf]
  3. Peter J. Lu, David A. Weitz, “Colloidal Particles: Crystals, Glasses, and Gels” Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics. 4, 9.1–9.17 (2013). [pdf]
  4. Biagio Nigro et al., “Enhanced tunneling conductivity induced by gelation of attractive colloids” Phys. Rev. E. 87, 062312 (2013). [pdf]
  5. Emanuela Zaccarelli, Peter J. Lu, Fabio Ciulla, David A. Weitz, Francesco Sciortino, “Gelation as arrested phase separation in short-ranged attractive colloid-polymer mixtures” Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. 20, 494242 (2008). [pdf]
  6. Peter J. Lu, thesis, “Gelation and Phase Separation of Attractive Colloids” Harvard University (2008). [pdf]
  7. J. J. Liétor-Santos, C. Kim, Peter J. Lu, A. Fernández-Nieves, D. A. Weitz, “Gravitational compression of colloidal gels” The European Physical Journal E: Soft Matter and Biological Physics. 28, 159–164 (2009). [pdf]