8th Liquid Matter Conference September 6-10, 2011 Wien, Austria ...

Wed 711:10-14:00P5.73Rod-like particles in a phase-separating binary liquidNiek Hijnen 11 The University of Edinburgh, James Clerk Maxwell Building, Mayfield Road EH9 3JZ,Edinburgh, United KingdomBy modifying the wetting behaviour of rod-like colloidal particles of varying aspect ratios weinvestigate different scenarios involving these particles in phase separating binary liquids. Simulationshave predicted novel arrested states when the rods partition into one phase [1] and thiswill be checked in a first set of experiments. Particles can also be trapped at the interface, and forrod-like particles their shape can introduce capillary interactions that result in strong and elasticparticle stabilized interfaces and thereby increased emulsion stability [2]. A special type of emulsionis a bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gel (bijel), which is formed when neutrallywetted particles arrest spinodal decomposition by jamming at the interface [3]. Considering theinteresting behaviour of interfaces stabilized by rod-like particles we aim to study bijels made withparticles of varying aspect ratio.[1] Peng et al. , Science, 2000[2] Madivala et al. , Soft Matter, 2009[3] Herzig et al. , Nature Materials, 200773