Cooperative rearrangement regions and dynamical heterogeneities in colloidal glasses with attractive versus repulsive interactions

Zexin Zhang*, Peter J. Yunker, Piotr Habdas, A. G. Yodh

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

120 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Water-lutidine mixtures permit the interparticle potentials of colloidal particles suspended therein to be tuned, in situ, from repulsive to attractive. We employ these systems to directly elucidate the effects of interparticle potential on glass dynamics in experimental samples composed of the same particles at the same packing fractions. Cooperative rearrangement regions (CRRs) and heterogeneous dynamics are observed in both types of glasses. Compared to repulsive glasses, the attractive glass dynamics are found to be heterogeneous over a wider range of time and length scales, and its CRRs involve more particles. Additionally, the CRRs are observed to be stringlike structures in repulsive glasses and compact structures in attractive glasses. Thus, the experiments demonstrate explicitly that glassy dynamics can depend on the sign of the interparticle interaction.

Original languageEnglish
Article number208303
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume107
Issue number20
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Nov 2011
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cooperative rearrangement regions and dynamical heterogeneities in colloidal glasses with attractive versus repulsive interactions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this