2004/02/29 by Barbara Ruzicka, B. Ruzicka, L. Zulian +3 · 2 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Clay minerals and soil interactions #Material Dynamics and Properties #Soil and Unsaturated Flow #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.258301
5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2004/05/10 · openalex publication_date 2004/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The gelation of water suspension of a synthetic clay (Laponite) has been studied by dynamic light scattering in a wide range of clay weight concentration (C(w)=0.003-0.031). At variance with previous determination, indicating a stable liquid phase for C(w)<C(*)(w) approximately 0.015-0.018, we find that gelation actually takes place in the whole examined C(w) range. We find also that C(*)(w) marks the transition between two different routes to gelation. We hypothesize that at low concentration Laponite suspension behaves as an attractive colloid and that the slowing down of the dynamics is attained by the formation of larger and larger clusters while at high concentration the basic units of the arrested phase could be the Debye Huckel spheres associated with single Laponite plates.