| Issue |
EPL
Volume 96, Number 2, October 2011
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 28005 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/96/28005 | |
| Published online | 29 September 2011 | |
Criticality and phase separation in a two-dimensional binary colloidal fluid induced by the solvent critical behavior
1
2. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart - Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany, EU
2
Department of Mathematical Sciences, Loughborough University - Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK, EU
3
Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme - Heisenbergstr. 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany, EU
Received:
6
July
2011
Accepted:
25
August
2011
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the phase behavior of a binary mixture of colloids with opposite adsorption preferences in a critical solvent. As a result of the attractive and repulsive critical Casimir forces, the critical fluctuations of the solvent lead to a further critical point in the colloidal system, i.e. to a critical colloidal-liquid–colloidal-liquid demixing phase transition which is controlled by the solvent temperature. Our experimental findings are in good agreement with calculations based on a simple approximation for the free energy of the system.
PACS: 82.70.Dd – Colloids / 68.35.Rh – Phase transitions and critical phenomena / 81.16.Dn – Self-assembly
© EPLA, 2011
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