Stiffening colloidal gels by solid inclusions. Issue 14 (28th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ferreiro-Córdova, Claudia; Foffi, Giuseppe; Pitois, Olivier; Guidolin, Chiara; Schneider, Maxime; Salonen, Anniina
• Is Part Of: Soft matter. Volume 18:Issue 14(2022)
• Page Start: 2842
• Page End: 2850
• Publication Date: 2022-03-28
• Subjects: Soft condensed matter -- Periodicals; 530.413
• DOI: 10.1039/d1sm01555a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1744-683X

Abstract

Abstract : The elastic properties of a soft matter material can be greatly altered by the presence of solid inclusions whose microscopic properties, such as their size and interactions, can have a dramatic effect. Abstract : The elastic properties of a soft matter material can be greatly altered by the presence of solid inclusions whose microscopic properties, such as their size and interactions, can have a dramatic effect. In order to shed light on these effects we use extensive rheology computer simulations to investigate colloidal gels with solid inclusions of different sizes. We show that the elastic properties vary in a highly non-trivial way as a consequence of the interactions between the gel backbone and the inclusions. In particular, we show that the key aspects are the presence of the gel backbone and its mechanical alteration originating from the inclusions. To confirm our observations and their generality, we performed experiments on an emulsion that presents strong analogies with colloidal gels and confirms the trends observed in the simulations.