Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 61, Number 5, March 2003
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 702 - 707 | |
Section | Interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2003-00132-1 | |
Published online | 01 February 2003 |
Nematic ordering vs. gelation in suspensions of charged platelets
Van 't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Utrecht University Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands
Corresponding author: h.n.w.lekkerkerker@chem.uu.nl
Received:
30
September
2002
Accepted:
16
December
2002
We study aqueous suspensions of charged gibbsite platelets that show the isotropic (I) to nematic (N) phase transition. This is the first case where the I-N transition in a dispersion of charged colloidal platelets is not impeded by gelation since Langmuir's classic work on dispersions of clay particles more than sixty years ago (J. Chem. Phys., 6 (1938) 873). On increasing particle concentration, our dispersions subsequently show an isotropic, nematic and gel phase. We attribute the shift of the gelation boundary from below to above the I-N transition to the surface modification of the gibbsite platelets with aluminium polycations, which are known to enhance the stability of gibbsite colloids significantly.
PACS: 82.70.Dd – Colloids / 64.70.Md – Transitions in liquid crystals / 61.30.Eb – Experimental determinations of smectic, nematic, cholesteric, and other structures
© EDP Sciences, 2003
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