1
|
Zhang H, Zhang Q, Liu F, Han Y. Anisotropic-Isotropic Transition of Cages at the Glass Transition. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2024; 132:078201. [PMID: 38427876 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.132.078201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Revised: 09/03/2023] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Characterizing the local structural evolution is an essential step in understanding the nature of glass transition. In this work, we probe the evolution of Voronoi cell geometry in simple glass models by simulations and colloid experiments, and find that the individual particle cages deform anisotropically in supercooled liquid and isotropically in glass. We introduce an anisotropy parameter k for each Voronoi cell, whose mean value exhibits a sharp change at the mode-coupling glass transition ϕ_{c}. Moreover, a power law of packing fraction ϕ∝q_{1}^{d} is discovered in the supercooled liquid regime with d>D, in contrast to d=D in the glass regime, where q_{1} is the first peak position of structure factor, and D is the space dimension. This power law is qualitatively explained by the change of k. The active motions in supercooled liquid are spatially correlated with long axes rather than short axes of Voronoi cells. In addition, the dynamic slowing down approaching the glass transition can be well characterized through a modified free-volume model based on k. These findings reveal that the structural parameter k is effective in identifying the structure-dynamics correlations and the glass transition in these systems.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Huijun Zhang
- State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Shaanxi International Research Center for Soft Matter, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi'an, China
| | - Qi Zhang
- Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong
| | - Feng Liu
- State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Shaanxi International Research Center for Soft Matter, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi'an, China
| | - Yilong Han
- Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong
- Shenzhen Research Institute, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Creating bulk ultrastable glasses by random particle bonding. Nat Commun 2023; 14:113. [PMID: 36611023 PMCID: PMC9825381 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-35812-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
A recent breakthrough in glass science has been the synthesis of ultrastable glasses via physical vapor deposition techniques. These samples display enhanced thermodynamic, kinetic and mechanical stability, with important implications for fundamental science and technological applications. However, the vapor deposition technique is limited to atomic, polymer and organic glass-formers and is only able to produce thin film samples. Here, we propose a novel approach to generate ultrastable glassy configurations in the bulk, via random particle bonding, and using computer simulations we show that this method does indeed allow for the production of ultrastable glasses. Our technique is in principle applicable to any molecular or soft matter system, such as colloidal particles with tunable bonding interactions, thus opening the way to the design of a large class of ultrastable glasses.
Collapse
|
3
|
Bley M, Hurtado PI, Dzubiella J, Moncho-Jordá A. Active interaction switching controls the dynamic heterogeneity of soft colloidal dispersions. SOFT MATTER 2022; 18:397-411. [PMID: 34904609 DOI: 10.1039/d1sm01507a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
We employ Reactive Dynamical Density Functional Theory (R-DDFT) and Reactive Brownian Dynamics (R-BD) simulations to investigate the dynamics of a suspension of active soft Gaussian colloids with binary interaction switching, i.e., a one-component colloidal system in which every particle stochastically switches at predefined rates between two interaction states with different mobility. Using R-DDFT we extend a theory previously developed to access the dynamics of inhomogeneous liquids [Archer et al., Phys. Rev. E: Stat., Nonlinear, Soft Matter Phys., 2007, 75, 040501] to study the influence of the switching activity on the self and distinct part of the Van Hove function in bulk solution, and determine the corresponding mean squared displacement of the switching particles. Our results demonstrate that, even though the average diffusion coefficient is not affected by the switching activity, it significantly modifies the non-equilibrium dynamics and diffusion coefficients of the individual particles, leading to a crossover from short to long times, with a regime for intermediate times showing anomalous diffusion. In addition, the self-part of the van Hove function has a Gaussian form at short and long times, but becomes non-Gaussian at intermediates ones, having a crossover between short and large displacements. The corresponding self-intermediate scattering function shows the two-step relaxation patters typically observed in soft materials with heterogeneous dynamics such as glasses and gels. We also introduce a phenomenological Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW) theory to understand the heterogeneous diffusion of this system. R-DDFT results are in excellent agreement with R-BD simulations and the analytical predictions of CTRW theory, thus confirming that R-DDFT constitutes a powerful method to investigate not only the structure and phase behavior, but also the dynamical properties of non-equilibrium active switching colloidal suspensions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael Bley
- Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder Straße 3, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Pablo I Hurtado
- Departamento de Electromagnetismo y Física de la Materia, Universidad de Granada, Campus Fuentenueva S/N, 18071 Granada, Spain
- Institute Carlos I for Theoretical and Computational Physics, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Campus Fuentenueva S/N, 18071 Granada, Spain.
| | - Joachim Dzubiella
- Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder Straße 3, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany.
- Research Group for Simulations of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, D-14109 Berlin, Germany
| | - Arturo Moncho-Jordá
- Institute Carlos I for Theoretical and Computational Physics, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Campus Fuentenueva S/N, 18071 Granada, Spain.
- Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Granada, Campus Fuentenueva S/N, 18071 Granada, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Frenzel L, Dartsch M, Balaguer GM, Westermeier F, Grübel G, Lehmkühler F. Glass-liquid and glass-gel transitions of soft-shell particles. Phys Rev E 2021; 104:L012602. [PMID: 34412357 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.104.l012602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 06/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
We study the structure and dynamics of colloidal particles with a spherical hard core and a thermo-responsive soft shell over the whole phase diagram by means of small-angle x-ray scattering and x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. By changing the effective volume fraction by temperature and particle concentration, liquid, repulsive glass. and attractive gel phases are observed. The dynamics slow down with increasing volume fraction in the liquid phase and reflect a Vogel-Fulcher-Tamann behavior known for fragile glass formers. We find a liquid-glass transition above 50 vol.% that is independent of the particles' concentration and temperature. In an overpacked state at effective volume fractions above 1, the dispersion does not show a liquid phase but undergoes a gel-glass transition at an effective volume fraction of 34 vol.%. At the same concentration, extrema of subdiffusive dynamics are found in the liquid phase at lower weight fractions. We interpret this as dynamic precursors of the glass-gel transition.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lara Frenzel
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.,The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Michael Dartsch
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.,The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
| | | | - Fabian Westermeier
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Gerhard Grübel
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.,The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Felix Lehmkühler
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.,The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Zepeda-López JB, Medina-Noyola M. Waiting-time dependent non-equilibrium phase diagram of simple glass- and gel-forming liquids. J Chem Phys 2021; 154:174901. [PMID: 34241066 DOI: 10.1063/5.0039524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Under numerous circumstances, many soft and hard materials are present in a puzzling wealth of non-equilibrium amorphous states, whose properties are not stationary and depend on preparation. They are often summarized in unconventional "phase diagrams" that exhibit new "phases" and/or "transitions" in which time, however, is an essential variable. This work proposes a solution to the problem of theoretically defining and predicting these non-equilibrium phases and their time-evolving phase diagrams, given the underlying molecular interactions. We demonstrate that these non-equilibrium phases and the corresponding non-stationary (i.e., aging) phase diagrams can indeed be defined and predicted using the kinetic perspective of a novel non-equilibrium statistical mechanical theory of irreversible processes. This is illustrated with the theoretical description of the transient process of dynamic arrest into non-equilibrium amorphous solid phases of an instantaneously quenched simple model fluid involving repulsive hard-sphere plus attractive square well pair interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jesús Benigno Zepeda-López
- Instituto de Física "Manuel Sandoval Vallarta," Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Álvaro Obregón 64, 78000, San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico
| | - Magdaleno Medina-Noyola
- Instituto de Física "Manuel Sandoval Vallarta," Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Álvaro Obregón 64, 78000, San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Fullerton CJ, Berthier L. Glassy Behavior of Sticky Spheres: What Lies beyond Experimental Timescales? PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2020; 125:258004. [PMID: 33416397 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.125.258004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2020] [Revised: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 11/23/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
We use the swap Monte Carlo algorithm to analyze the glassy behavior of sticky spheres in equilibrium conditions at densities where conventional simulations and experiments fail to reach equilibrium, beyond predicted phase transitions and dynamic singularities. We demonstrate the existence of a unique ergodic region comprising all the distinct phases previously reported, except for a phase-separated region at strong adhesion. All structural and dynamic observables evolve gradually within this ergodic region, the physics evolving smoothly from well-known hard sphere glassy behavior at small adhesions and large densities, to a more complex glassy regime characterized by unusually broad distributions of relaxation timescales and length scales at large adhesions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J Fullerton
- Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C), Université de Montpellier, CNRS, 34095 Montpellier, France
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom
| | - Ludovic Berthier
- Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C), Université de Montpellier, CNRS, 34095 Montpellier, France
- Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Dai LJ, Fu CL, Zhu YL, Li ZW, Sun ZY. Probing Intermittent Motion of Polymer Chains in Weakly Attractive Nanocomposites. CHINESE JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10118-020-2352-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
|
8
|
Olais-Govea JM, López-Flores L, Zepeda-López JB, Medina-Noyola M. Interference between the glass, gel, and gas-liquid transitions. Sci Rep 2019; 9:16445. [PMID: 31712562 PMCID: PMC6848111 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-52591-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2019] [Accepted: 10/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent experiments and computer simulations have revealed intriguing phenomenological fingerprints of the interference between the ordinary equilibrium gas-liquid phase transition and the non-equilibrium glass and gel transitions. We thus now know, for example, that the liquid-gas spinodal line and the glass transition loci intersect at a finite temperature and density, that when the gel and the glass transitions meet, mechanisms for multistep relaxation emerge, and that the formation of gels exhibits puzzling latency effects. In this work we demonstrate that the kinetic perspective of the non-equilibrium self-consistent generalized Langevin equation (NE-SCGLE) theory of irreversible processes in liquids provides a unifying first-principles microscopic theoretical framework to describe these and other phenomena associated with spinodal decomposition, gelation, glass transition, and their combinations. The resulting scenario is in reality the competition between two kinetically limiting behaviors, associated with the two distinct dynamic arrest transitions in which the liquid-glass line is predicted to bifurcate at low densities, below its intersection with the spinodal line.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- José Manuel Olais-Govea
- Instituto de Física "Manuel Sandoval Vallarta", Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Álvaro Obregón 64, 78000, San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico
- Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Av. Eugenio Garza Sada 300, 78211, San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico
- Tecnologico de Monterrey, Writing Lab, TecLab, Vicerrectoría de Investigación y Transferencia de Tecnología, Monterrey, 64849, NL, Mexico
| | - Leticia López-Flores
- Instituto de Física "Manuel Sandoval Vallarta", Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Álvaro Obregón 64, 78000, San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico.
| | - Jesús Benigno Zepeda-López
- Instituto de Física "Manuel Sandoval Vallarta", Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Álvaro Obregón 64, 78000, San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico
| | - Magdaleno Medina-Noyola
- Instituto de Física "Manuel Sandoval Vallarta", Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Álvaro Obregón 64, 78000, San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Shireen Z, Babu SB. Cage dynamics leads to double relaxation of the intermediate scattering function in a binary colloidal system. SOFT MATTER 2018; 14:9271-9281. [PMID: 30403250 DOI: 10.1039/c8sm01474d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
A system of binary colloids where one fraction of particles is aggregating by forming irreversible bonds and the other fraction of particles only interacts as hard spheres, is simulated using Brownian cluster dynamics. These aggregating species always formed percolating clusters for the case of diffusing hard spheres while for the static case, formation of percolating clusters depended on the fraction of static hard spheres in the system. The dynamics of the hard spheres inside the percolating clusters was studied by restarting the simulation after the kinetics of aggregation was arrested. Two cases were studied, one where the percolated particles moved within the bonds or cage dynamics was allowed and another where the movement within the bonds was not allowed or the cages were static. The hard spheres showed anomalous diffusion in both cases. The mean square displacement showed that for the case of dynamic cages we always had diffusive hard spheres irrespective of the fraction of hard spheres for volume fractions below 0.49. Static cages, depending on the fraction of hard spheres, showed either diffusive or arrested behavior of hard spheres. The intermediate scattering function of only the hard sphere particles showed double relaxation similar to the colloidal glass system for low volume fraction, where the fraction of hard sphere particles was small. For higher fractions we observed only a single stretched exponential. We could differentiate between slow and fast particles for both static and dynamic cages. For the case of static cages the hard spheres were permanently stuck inside the cages while for the case of dynamic cages almost all the hard spheres were moving in and out of the cages.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zakiya Shireen
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India.
| | | |
Collapse
|
10
|
Roldán-Vargas S, Rovigatti L, Sciortino F. Connectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid. SOFT MATTER 2017; 13:514-530. [PMID: 27935002 DOI: 10.1039/c6sm02282k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
We report a detailed computational study by Brownian dynamics simulations of the structure and dynamics of a liquid of patchy particles which forms an amorphous tetrahedral network upon decreasing the temperature. The highly directional particle interactions allow us to investigate the system connectivity by discriminating the total set of particles into different populations according to a penta-modal distribution of bonds per particle. With this methodology we show how the particle bonding process is not randomly independent but it manifests clear bond correlations at low temperatures. We further explore the dynamics of the system in real space and establish a clear relation between particle mobility and particle connectivity. In particular, we provide evidence of anomalous diffusion at low temperatures and reveal how the dynamics is affected by the short-time hopping motion of the weakly bounded particles. Finally we widely investigate the dynamics and structure of the system in Fourier space and identify two quantitatively similar length scales, one dynamic and the other static, which increase upon cooling the system and reach distances of the order of few particle diameters. We summarize our findings in a qualitative picture where the low temperature regime of the viscoelastic liquid is understood in terms of an evolving network of long time metastable cooperative domains of particles.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sándalo Roldán-Vargas
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, D-01307, Dresden, Germany. and Department of Physics, Sapienza, Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185, Roma, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Rovigatti
- Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria and Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3NP, UK
| | - Francesco Sciortino
- Department of Physics, Sapienza, Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185, Roma, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Micoulaut M. Relaxation and physical aging in network glasses: a review. REPORTS ON PROGRESS IN PHYSICS. PHYSICAL SOCIETY (GREAT BRITAIN) 2016; 79:066504. [PMID: 27213928 DOI: 10.1088/0034-4885/79/6/066504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Recent progress in the description of glassy relaxation and aging are reviewed for the wide class of network-forming materials such as GeO2, Ge x Se1-x , silicates (SiO2-Na2O) or borates (B2O3-Li2O), all of which have an important usefulness in domestic, geological or optoelectronic applications. A brief introduction of the glass transition phenomenology is given, together with the salient features that are revealed both from theory and experiments. Standard experimental methods used for the characterization of the slowing down of the dynamics are reviewed. We then discuss the important role played by aspects of network topology and rigidity for the understanding of the relaxation of the glass transition, while also permitting analytical predictions of glass properties from simple and insightful models based on the network structure. We also emphasize the great utility of computer simulations which probe the dynamics at the molecular level, and permit the calculation of various structure-related functions in connection with glassy relaxation and the physics of aging which reveal the non-equilibrium nature of glasses. We discuss the notion of spatial variations of structure which leads to the concept of 'dynamic heterogeneities', and recent results in relation to this important topic for network glasses are also reviewed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthieu Micoulaut
- Paris Sorbonne Universités, LPTMC-UPMC, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France
| |
Collapse
|