PMID 29758608
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.97.040601
WoS: WOS:000429636700001
30 Citations
Résumé:

We explore the glassy dynamics of soft colloids using microgels and charged particles interacting by steric and screened Coulomb interactions, respectively. In the supercooled regime, the structural relaxation time τα of both systems grows steeply with volume fraction, reminiscent of the behavior of colloidal hard spheres. Computer simulations confirm that the growth of τα on approaching the glass transition is independent of particle softness. By contrast, softness becomes relevant at very large packing fractions when the system falls out of equilibrium. In this nonequilibrium regime, τα depends surprisingly weakly on packing fraction, and time correlation functions exhibit a compressed exponential decay consistent with stress-driven relaxation. The transition to this novel regime coincides with the onset of an anomalous decrease in local order with increasing density typical of ultrasoft systems. We propose that these peculiar dynamics results from the combination of the nonequilibrium aging dynamics expected in the glassy state and the tendency of colloids interacting through soft potentials to refluidize at high packing fractions.

Ref HAL: hal-01889803_v1
Ref Arxiv: 1802.03820
DOI: 10.1122/1.5025622
WoS: 000449684700010
Ref. & Cit.: NASA ADS
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10 Citations
Résumé:

Power law rheology is of widespread occurrence in complex materials that are characterized by the presence of a very broad range of microstructural length and time scales. Although phenomenological models able to reproduce the observed rheological features exist, in general a well-established connection with the microscopic origin of this mechanical behavior is still missing. As a model system, this work focuses on a fractal colloidal gel. We thoroughly characterize the linear power law rheology of the sample and its age dependence. We show that at all sample ages and for a variety of rheological tests the gel linear viscoelasticity is very accurately described by a Fractional Maxwell (FM) model, characterized by a power law behavior. Thanks to a unique set-up that couples small-angle static and dynamic light scattering to rheological measurements, we demonstrate that the power law rheology observed in the linear regime originates from reversible non-affine rearrangements and discuss the possible relationship between the FM model and the microscopic structure of the gel.

Commentaires: . Réf Journal: Journal of Rheology, 62, 1429-1441 (2018)

Ref HAL: hal-01869797_v1
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmps.2018.07.024
WoS: 000446291200012
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11 Citations
Résumé:

We investigate the non-linear buckling patterns produced by the elastic Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a hyper-elastic slab hanging below a rigid horizontal plane, using a combination of experiments, weakly non-linear expansions and numerical simulations. Our experiments reveal the formation of hexagonal patterns through a discontinuous transition. As the unbuckled state is transversely isotropic, a continuum of linear modes become critical at the first bifurcation load: the critical wavevectors form a circle contained in a horizontal plane. Using a weakly non-linear post-bifurcation expansion, we investigate how these linear modes cooperate to produce buckling patterns: by a mechanism documented in other transversely isotropic structures, three-modes coupling make the unbuckled configuration unstable with respect to hexagonal patterns by a transcritical bifurcation. Stripe and square patterns are solutions of the post-bifurcation expansion as well but they are unstable near the threshold. These analytical results are confirmed and complemented by numerical simulations.

Ref HAL: hal-01811516_v1
DOI: 10.1039/C7SM02357J
WoS: 000433430900011
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7 Citations

Ref HAL: hal-01788790_v1
PMID 29751267
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.04.087
WoS: 000436900400034
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20 Citations
Résumé:

Gliadins are edible wheat storage proteins well known for their surface active properties. In this paper, we present experimental results on the interfacial properties of acidic solutions of gliadin studied over 5 decades of concentrations, from 0.001 to 110 g/L. Dynamic pendant drop tensiometry reveals that the surface pressure  of gliadin solutions builds up in a multistep process. The series of curves of the time evolution of collected at different bulk protein concentrations C can be merged onto a single master curve when  is plotted as a function of t where t is the time elapsed since the formation of the air/water interface and  is a shift parameter that varies with C as a power law with an exponent 2. The existence of such time-concentration superposition, which we evidence for the first time, indicates that the same mechanisms govern the surface tension evolution at all concentrations and are accelerated by an increase of the bulk concentration. The scaling of  with C is consistent with a kinetic of adsorption controlled by the diffusion of the proteins in the bulk. Moreover, we show that the proteins adsorption at the air/water interface is kinetically irreversible. Correlated evolutions of the optical and elastic properties of the interfaces, as probed by ellipsometry and surface dilatational rheology respectively, provide a consistent physical picture of the building up of the protein interfacial layer. A progressive coverage of the interface by the proteins occurs at low . This stage is followed, at higher , by conformational rearrangements of the protein film, which are identified by a strong increase of the dissipative viscoelastic properties of the film concomitantly with a peculiar evolution of its optical profile that we have rationalized. In the last stage, at even higher surface pressure, the adsorption is arrested; the optical profile is not modified while the elasticity of the interfacial layer dramatically increases with the surface pressure, presumably due to the film ageing.

Ref HAL: hal-01774583_v1
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Ref HAL: hal-01761380_v1
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.148003
WoS: 000429451000016
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5 Citations
Résumé:

We investigate freely expanding sheets formed by ultrasoft gel beads, and liquid and viscoelastic drops, produced by the impact of the bead or drop on a silicon wafer covered with a thin layer of liquid nitrogen that suppresses viscous dissipation thanks to an inverse Leidenfrost effect. Our experiments show a unified behavior for the impact dynamics that holds for solids, liquids, and viscoelastic fluids and that we rationalize by properly taking into account elastocapillary effects. In this framework, the classical impact dynamics of solids and liquids, as far as viscous dissipation is negligible, appears as the asymptotic limits of a universal theoretical description. A novel material-dependent characteristic velocity that includes both capillary and bulk elasticity emerges from this unified description of the physics of impact.