TY - JOUR
TI - Asymmetric caging in soft colloidal mixtures
AU - C. Mayer
AU - E. Zaccarelli
AU - E. Stiakakis
AU - C. N. Likos
AU - F. Sciortino
AU - A. Munam
AU - M. Gauthier
AU - N. Hadjichristidis
AU - H. Iatrou
AU - P. Tartaglia
AU - H. Löwen
AU - D. Vlassopoulos
JO - Nature Materials
PY - 2008
VL - 7
TODO - 10
SP - 780--784
PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC
SN - 1476-1122, 1476-4660
TODO - 10.1038/nmat2286
TODO - Glass;  Mixtures, Dynamical arrests;  Hard-sphere glass;  Hard-sphere mixtures;  Parameter spaces;  Rational design;  Rheological property;  Soft-colloidal mixtures;  Vitrified state, Amorphous materials
TODO - The long-standing observations that different amorphous materials exhibit a pronounced enhancement of viscosity and eventually vitrify on compression or cooling continue to fascinate and challenge scientists1, on the ground of their physical origin and practical implications. Glass formation is a generic phenomenon, observed in physically quite distinct systems that encompass hard and soft particles. It is believed that a common underlying scenario2,3, namely cage formation, drives dynamical arrest, especially at high concentrations. Here, we identify a novel, asymmetric glassy state in soft colloidal mixtures, which is characterized by strongly anisotropically distorted cages, bearing similarities to those of hard-sphere glasses under shear. The anisotropy is induced by the presence of soft additives. This phenomenon seems to be generic to soft colloids and its origins lie in the penetrability of the constituent particles. The resulting phase diagram for mixtures of soft particles is clearly distinct from that of hard-sphere mixtures and brings forward a rich variety of vitrified states that delineate an ergodic lake in the parameter space spanned by the size ratio between the two components and by the concentration of the additives. Thus, a new route opens for the rational design of soft particles with desired tunable rheological properties. © 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
ER -