Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
J Phys Chem B. 2011 Jun 9;115(22):7294-300. doi: 10.1021/jp111388m. Epub 2011 May 16.
We investigate the role of hydrodynamic interactions in the formation of clusters of attractive colloids by means of computer simulations. In simulations employing the multiparticle collision dynamics scheme to represent hydrodynamics, larger and, to a lesser extent, more elongated transient clusters are formed than in simulations merely employing Langevin dynamics. As these clusters constitute the precursors to a colloidal gel, their shape affects the structure of the gel as well as the threshold concentration and colloidal attraction strength at which gelation occurs. Our findings support recent observations regarding the effect of hydrodynamics on colloidal gel formation.
我们通过计算机模拟研究了水动力相互作用在吸引性胶体聚集体形成中的作用。在采用多粒子碰撞动力学方案来表示流体动力学的模拟中，形成的瞬态聚集体比仅采用朗之万动力学的模拟更大，而且在一定程度上更具拉长的形状。由于这些聚集体构成了胶体凝胶的前体，因此它们的形状会影响凝胶的结构以及发生凝胶化的阈值浓度和胶体吸引力强度。我们的研究结果支持了最近关于水动力对胶体凝胶形成的影响的观察结果。
