Search results for "Hard spheres"
showing 6 items of 66 documents
Crystallization of hard spheres revisited. II. Thermodynamic modeling, nucleation work, and the surface of tension
2018
Combining three numerical methods (forward flux sampling, seeding of droplets, and finite-size droplets), we probe the crystallization of hard spheres over the full range from close to coexistence to the spinodal regime. We show that all three methods allow us to sample different regimes and agree perfectly in the ranges where they overlap. By combining the nucleation work calculated from forward flux sampling of small droplets and the nucleation theorem, we show how to compute the nucleation work spanning three orders of magnitude. Using a variation of the nucleation theorem, we show how to extract the pressure difference between the solid droplet and ambient liquid. Moreover, combining th…
Methods to Compute Pressure and Wall Tension in Fluids containing Hard Particles
2011
Colloidal systems are often modelled as fluids of hard particles (possibly with an additional soft attraction, e.g. caused by polymers also contained in the suspension). in simulations of such systems, the virial theorem cannot be straightforwardly applied to obtain the components of the pressure tensor. In systems confined by walls, it is hence also not straightforward to extract the excess energy due to the wall (the "wall tension") from the pressure tensor anisotropy. A comparative evaluation of several methods to circumvent this problem is presented, using as examples fluids of hard spheres and the Asakura-Oosawa model of colloid-polymer mixtures with a size ratio $q=0.15$ (for which th…
The effect of free polymer on the interactions and the glass transition dynamics of microgel colloids.
2002
By studying the phase behaviour and the short range order of polystyrene microgel colloids in a good solvent we demonstrated that these particles can be considered as hard spheres or nearly hard spheres if the internal cross link density is made sufficiently high. A binary mixture of 1:50 crosslinked (1 crosslink per 50 monomers) particles with a size ratio R(small)/R(large) = 0.83 and a number ratio N(small)/N(large) = 2.7 was characterized with respect to the short range order and glass transition dynamics. We found that this mixture can be mapped onto a one-component hard sphere system with an effective polydispersity of 11%, even though for the particle interactions an inverse power pot…
The effect of free polymer on the glass transition dynamics of microgel colloids
2002
Abstract From the phase behavior we establish that 1:10 crosslinked polystyrene microgel colloids in a good solvent can be considered as hard spheres whereas 1:50 crosslinked particles are slightly softer. Nevertheless, the glass transition dynamics of 1:10 microgels and a binary mixtures of 1:50 microgels can be described in both cases within the mode coupling theory for hard spheres. The only difference is that the increase of the polydispersity from about 7% to about 13% when going from the one-component system to the mixture is accompanied by a shift of the glass transition from ϕ g ≈0.56 to ϕ g ≈0.595. On addition of linear polystyrene to the 1:50 binary mixture we find a tremendous ac…
Re-entrant glass transition in a colloid-polymer mixture with depletion attractions.
2002
Performing light scattering experiments we show that introducing short-ranged attraction to a colloidal suspension of nearly hard spheres by addition of free polymer produces new glass transition phenomena. We observe a dramatic acceleration of the density fluctuations amounting to the melting of a colloidal glass. Increasing the strength of the attractions the system freezes into another nonergodic state sharing some qualitative features with gel states occurring at lower colloid packing fractions. This reentrant glass transition is in qualitative agreement with recent theoretical predictions.
Vitrification in restricted geometry: dry films of colloidal particles
2007
We prepared dry films of colloidal particles from surfactant co-stabilized polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) latex spheres of moderate polydispersity. The film thickness was varied from monolayer to some 20 μm. The average structure and the influence of polydispersity was analyzed by small-angle X-ray scattering. An analysis of local microscopic structures was performed by force microscopy on the least polydisperse sample. Irrespective of the thickness, we observe the formation of only short-ranged order which is rather pronounced but changes its qualitative character in the vicinity of the substrate. The observations suggest a bulk structure of small, defect-rich and stacking fault…