Study of dynamical heterogeneities in colloidal nanoclay suspensions approaching dynamical arrest.

ABSTRACT: The dynamics of aqueous Laponite clay suspensions slow down with increasing sample waiting time (t _w ). This behavior, and the material fragility that results, closely resemble the dynamical slowdown in fragile supercooled liquids with decreasing temperature, and are typically ascribed to the increasing sizes of distinct dynamical heterogeneities in the sample. In this article, we characterize the dynamical heterogeneities in Laponite suspensions by invoking the three-point dynamic susceptibility formalism. The average time-dependent two-point intensity autocorrelation and its sensitivity to t _w are probed in dynamic light scattering experiments. Distributions of relaxation time scales, deduced from the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts equation, are seen to widen with increa

SUBMITTER: Gadige P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5556041 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature