Abstract
Colloidal particles with strong, short-ranged attractions can form a gel. We simulate this process without and with hydrodynamic interactions (HI), using the lattice-Boltzmann method to account for presence of a thermalized solvent. We show that HI speed up and slow down gelation at low and high volume fractions, respectively. The transition between these two regimes is linked to the existence of a percolating cluster shortly after quenching the system. However, when we compare gels at matched ‘structural age', we find nearly indistinguishable structures with and without HI. Our result explains longstanding, unresolved conflicts in the literature.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 10-16 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Soft Matter |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Nov 2018 |
Funding
We thank Marie Skłodowska-Curie Intra European Fellowship (G.A. No. 654916) within Horizon 2020 (JdG), an EPSRC Programme Grant (EP/J007404/1) and the International Fine Particles Research Institute (WCKP) for funding; Henri Menke for ESPResSo support; Georg Rempfer, Paul van der Schoot, and Nick Koumakis for discussions; and Christian Holm for making his GPU cluster available.