1,657 research outputs found
Investigation of the dynamical slowing down process in soft glassy colloidal suspensions: comparisons with supercooled liquids
The primary and secondary relaxation timescales of aging colloidal
suspensions of Laponite are estimated from intensity autocorrelation functions
obtained in dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments. The dynamical slowing
down of these relaxation processes are compared with observations in fragile
supercooled liquids by establishing a one-to-one mapping between the waiting
time since filtration of a Laponite suspension and the inverse of the
temperature of a supercooled liquid that is rapidly quenched towards its glass
transition temperature. New timescales, such as the Vogel time and the Kauzmann
time, are extracted to describe the phenomenon of dynamical arrest in Laponite
suspensions. In results that are strongly reminiscent of those extracted from
supercooled liquids approaching their glass transitions, it is demonstrated
that the Vogel time calculated for each Laponite concentration is approximately
equal to the Kauzmann time, and that a strong coupling exists between the
primary and secondary relaxation processes of aging Laponite suspensions.
Furthermore, the experimental data presented here clearly demonstrates the
self-similar nature of the aging dynamics of Laponite suspensions within a
range of sample concentrations.Comment: 30 pages, includes supporting informatio
- …