Tuning local microstructure of colloidal gels by ultrasound-activated deformable inclusions.

ABSTRACT: Colloidal gels possess a memory of previous shear events, both steady and oscillatory. This memory, embedded in the microstructure, affects the mechanical response of the gel, and therefore enables precise tuning of the material properties under careful preparation. Here we demonstrate how the dynamics of a deformable inclusion, namely a bubble, can be used to locally tune the microstructure of a colloidal gel. We examine two different phenomena of bubble dynamics that apply a local strain to the surrounding material: dissolution due to gas diffusion, with a characteristic strain rate of ∼10^-3 s^-1; and volumetric oscillations driven by ultrasound, with a characteristic frequency of ∼10⁴ s^-1. We characterise experimentally the microstructure of a

SUBMITTER: Saint-Michel B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8905491 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature