https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/e2005-00009-x
Regular Articles
Non-equilibrium behavior of sticky colloidal particles: beads, clusters and gels
1
School of Physics, The University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland, UK
2
Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin, Glienicker Str. 100, 14109, Berlin, Germany
* e-mail: w.poon@ed.ac.uk
Received:
17
November
2004
Published online:
31
January
2005
To understand the non-equilibrium behavior of colloidal particles with short-range attraction, we studied salt-induced aggregation of lysozyme. Optical microscopy revealed four regimes: bicontinuous texture, ‘beads’, large aggregates, and transient gelation. The interaction of a metastable liquid-liquid binodal and an ergodic to non-ergodic transition boundary inside the equilibrium crystallization region can explain our findings.
© EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag, 2005