Colloid-polymer interactions in silica based particle systems

Abstract

This work falls into two distinct sets of experiments: First I attempted to observe the dynamics generated by the competing interactions of short range attraction and long range repulsion in what is known as mermaid interactions, in a solution of fluorescently labelled silica core shell particles and polyethylene oxide (PEO). Whilst I was able to observe some of the interactions and structures that I was looking for, I was unable to reliably reproduce these observations and due to the instability of the particles were unable to properly characterise those interactions that I did observe as being linked to the polymer volume fraction present. Second I created colloidal gels consisting of fluorescently labelled silica core shell particles and a polymer solution containing polyethylene oxide (PEO). I successfully observed the coarsening of the gel over an exponential time period after creation.

Date of Award	6 Dec 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Adrian C Barnes (Supervisor)