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Ultra‐small‐angle X‐ray scattering studies of attractive colloidal glass transition
Author(s) -
Pontoni D.,
Narayanan T.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of applied crystallography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.429
H-Index - 162
ISSN - 1600-5767
DOI - 10.1107/s0021889803001730
Subject(s) - colloid , small angle x ray scattering , hard spheres , chemical physics , scattering , small angle scattering , structure factor , materials science , phase transition , particle (ecology) , phase (matter) , crystallography , condensed matter physics , chemistry , optics , physics , computational chemistry , oceanography , organic chemistry , geology
The microstructure of a colloidal system with short‐ranged inter‐particle interactions is studied by ultra‐small‐angle X‐ray scattering (USAXS). A gas‐liquid type transition can be induced when the short‐ranged attractive interactions attain sufficient magnitude. The static structure factor revealed a systematic development of attractive interactions prior to the appearance of the liquid‐like structure. The interparticle interaction in the close vicinity of the transition can be approximately described by a square‐well potential with a hard‐sphere repulsion. The colloid‐rich phase is structurally similar to a liquid, but dynamically it shows extreme non‐ergodic behaviour with a complete kinetic arrest. Furthermore, the USAXS intensity from the colloid‐rich phase shows Porod behaviour indicating that the colloidal clusters have non‐fractal morphology. The attractive term disappears when the domains develop towards their final size suggesting that particles within the clusters interact like hard spheres.