Mucus as an Arrested Phase Separation Gel Auteur(s): Philippe A. M., Cipelletti L., Larobina Domenico (Article) Publié: Macromolecules, vol. 50 p.8221-8230 (2017) Ref HAL: hal-01934572_v1 DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.7b00842 WoS: 000413885100043 Exporter : BibTex | endNote 7 Citations Résumé: We investigate the spontaneous restructuring andaging behavior of pig gastric mucus gels by combining rheology andnonconventional static and dynamic light scattering. We find that themucus elasticity weakens over time, concomitantly to structuralevolution toward a locally more compact configuration and the onsetof large scale density fluctuations. We interpret this behavior asstemming from an arrested phase separation, as observed in manygel-forming polymer systems. This scenario is confirmed by spaceandtime-resolved dynamic light scattering data, showing that the gelrestructuring is due to intermittent bursts of spatially correlatedrearrangements, leading to ballistic dynamics. |