14 research outputs found
The Physics of the Colloidal Glass Transition
As one increases the concentration of a colloidal suspension, the system
exhibits a dramatic increase in viscosity. Structurally, the system resembles a
liquid, yet motions within the suspension are slow enough that it can be
considered essentially frozen. This kinetic arrest is the colloidal glass
transition. For several decades, colloids have served as a valuable model
system for understanding the glass transition in molecular systems. The spatial
and temporal scales involved allow these systems to be studied by a wide
variety of experimental techniques. The focus of this review is the current
state of understanding of the colloidal glass transition. A brief introduction
is given to important experimental techniques used to study the glass
transition in colloids. We describe features of colloidal systems near and in
glassy states, including tremendous increases in viscosity and relaxation
times, dynamical heterogeneity, and ageing, among others. We also compare and
contrast the glass transition in colloids to that in molecular liquids. Other
glassy systems are briefly discussed, as well as recently developed synthesis
techniques that will keep these systems rich with interesting physics for years
to come.Comment: 56 pages, 18 figures, Revie
Diffusion and viscosity in a supercooled polydisperse system
We have carried out extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a supercooled
polydisperse Lennard-Jones liquid with large variations in temperature at a
fixed pressure. The particles in the system are considered to be polydisperse
both in size and mass. The temperature dependence of the dynamical properties
such as the viscosity () and the self-diffusion coefficients () of
different size particles is studied. Both viscosity and diffusion coefficients
show super-Arrhenius temperature dependence and fit well to the well-known
Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) equation. Within the temperature range
investigated, the value of the Angell's fragility parameter (D )
classifies the present system into a strongly fragile liquid. The critical
temperature for diffusion () increases with the size of the
particles. The critical temperature for viscosity () is larger than
that for the diffusion and a sizeable deviations appear for the smaller size
particles implying a decoupling of translational diffusion from viscosity in
deeply supercooled liquid. Indeed, the diffusion shows markedly non-Stokesian
behavior at low temperatures where a highly nonlinear dependence on size is
observed. An inspection of the trajectories of the particles shows that at low
temperatures the motions of both the smallest and largest size particles are
discontinuous (jump-type). However, the crossover from continuous Brownian to
large length hopping motion takes place at shorter time scales for the smaller
size particles.Comment: Revtex4, 7 pages, 8 figure
Translational and Reorientational Motion in Supercooled Ortho-Terphenyl : A Molecular-Dynamics Study
Using Neutron Spin-Echo To Investigate Proton Dynamics in Proton-Conducting Perovskites
The applicability and potential of neutron spin-echo (NSE) to study proton dynamics in proton-conducting ceramics was studied. The experiment was performed on hydrated BaZr 0,90 Y 0.10 O 2.95 (10Y:BZO), a cubic perovskite with a relatively high proton conductivity. The NSE experiment was performed at the IN15 spectrometer at Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France. The relaxation rate for two Q-values for the temperature 563 K was determined. The first-principles calculations were carried out within the framework of density functional theory (DFT). The calculated diffusion harriers far from Y-dopants are found to he 0.20 and 0.18 eV for the proton transfer and hydroxyl rotation motion, respectively. The binding energy to a Y-dopant is 0.16 eV, and the influence of the Y-dopant on the energetics for the proton is quite extended in space, including both the first and the second coordination shells