Brownian motion of anisotropic colloids

Participants: Erick Sarmiento, José Luis Arauz

Understanding the dynamics of complex Brownian particles is fundamental for several practical problems, such as biodistribution, sedimentation, coagulation, flotation and rheology. From a more fundamental point of view, dealing theoretically with anisotropic colloids is intrinsically complicated due to the additional degrees of freedom required to describe this phenomena. Experimentally, synthesis of large amounts of monodisperse anisotropic colloids remains a challenge. We are currently studying the Brownian motion of the simplest anisotropic colloid, i.e. two spherical particles attached (a colloidal dumbbell). Previously, the static properties of mixtures of spherical and dumbbells particles was studied, along with a well establish method for synthesis of this anisotropic colloid (link). Nowadays, we are exploring the effects of confinement in a colloidal mixture of spherical particles and dumbbells, ranging from the dilute regime to a concentration close to the crystallizationIn collaboration with Ramon Castañeta’s group, from University of Guanajuato, molecular dynamics simulations are being used to test our experimental results.

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Last Uptade: January 2015