TY - JOUR
T1 - Kinetics of gel formation in dilute dispersions with strong attractive particle interactions
AU - Sandkuhler, Peter
AU - Sefcik, J.
AU - Morbidelli, M.
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - We report a combined experimental and modeling study to investigate the kinetics of the transformation of a colloidal dispersion with strong attractive particle interactions into a gel. In the model, a two step mechanism is proposed, where an initial aggregation step is followed by an interconnection step leading to a particle network spanning the entire system volume. Using the Smoluchowski aggregation equation for the first step, we introduce a criterion to determine when the aggregation process is arrested and clusters become caged. In the second step the caged clusters diffuse over short distances and interconnect to form the particle network. The reliability of the gelation times computed by the model has been tested by comparison with a suitable set of experimental data. In addition, we show that the concept of mathematical gelation within the Smoluchowski aggregation equation is not appropriate for the description of the entire gel formation process in this system.
AB - We report a combined experimental and modeling study to investigate the kinetics of the transformation of a colloidal dispersion with strong attractive particle interactions into a gel. In the model, a two step mechanism is proposed, where an initial aggregation step is followed by an interconnection step leading to a particle network spanning the entire system volume. Using the Smoluchowski aggregation equation for the first step, we introduce a criterion to determine when the aggregation process is arrested and clusters become caged. In the second step the caged clusters diffuse over short distances and interconnect to form the particle network. The reliability of the gelation times computed by the model has been tested by comparison with a suitable set of experimental data. In addition, we show that the concept of mathematical gelation within the Smoluchowski aggregation equation is not appropriate for the description of the entire gel formation process in this system.
KW - colloidal dispersions
KW - aggregation kinetics
KW - gelation
KW - light scattering
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2003.10.016
U2 - 10.1016/j.cis.2003.10.016
DO - 10.1016/j.cis.2003.10.016
M3 - Article
VL - 108
SP - 133
EP - 143
JO - Advances in Colloid and Interface Science
JF - Advances in Colloid and Interface Science
SN - 0001-8686
ER -