Formation of topological bigels in mixtures of colloidal rings and polymers

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Bonato, Andrea and Marenduzzo, Davide and Orlandini, Enzo (2025) Formation of topological bigels in mixtures of colloidal rings and polymers. Physical Review Letters. ISSN 1079-7114 (In Press)

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Abstract

We study a spherically confined mixture of polymers and colloidal rings. Unlike in standard colloid-polymer mixtures, the polymers interact topologically with the rings by threading them. We find that, above a critical value of the ring radius, threading yields a topological transition from a fluid to a gel-like phase characterised by a space-spanning network of interlocked polymers and rings, which we refer to as a bicomponent gel, or bigel. By exploiting the mixture dual character (rings/polymers), we predict analytically the value of the critical radius. We also show that the mobility of entanglements in the mixture slows down upon entering the gel phase, due to topological hindrance arising from threadings, whilst the transition rates between topological states of the colloidal probes provide another strong dynamical signature of the gel phase.

ORCID iDs

Bonato, Andrea ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5148-8590, Marenduzzo, Davide and Orlandini, Enzo;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:92621
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    15 April 2025
    Published
    15 April 2025
    Accepted
    Subjects:Science > Physics
    Department:Faculty of Science > Physics
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:17 Apr 2025 09:19
    Last modified:17 Apr 2025 09:19
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/92621
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