Bart Weber

S-shaped flow curves of shear thickening suspensions: Direct observation of frictional rheology

We study the rheological behavior of concentrated granular suspensions of simple spherical particles. Under controlled stress, the system exhibits an S-shaped flow curve (stress vs shear rate) with a negative slope in between the low-viscosity Newtonian regime and the shear thickened regime. Under controlled shear rate, a discontinuous transition between the two states is observed. Stress visualization experiments with a fluorescent probe suggest that friction is at the origin of shear thickening. Stress visualization shows that the stress in the system remains homogeneous (no shear banding) if a stress is imposed that is intermediate between the high- and low-stress branches. The S-shaped shear thickening is then due to the discontinuous formation of a frictional force network between particles upon increasing the stress.

Colloidal aggregation in microgravity by critical Casimir forces

By using the critical Casimir force, we study the attractive strength dependent aggregation of colloids with and without gravity by means of near field scattering. Significant differences were seen between microgravity and ground experiments, both in the structure of the formed fractal aggregates as well as in the kinetics of growth. In microgravity purely diffusive aggregation is observed. By using the continuously variable particle interaction potential we can for the first time experimentally relate the strength of attraction between the particles and the structure of the aggregates.

Fluorescence Microscopy Visualization of Contacts Between Objects

The area of contact between two objects was detected by using the strong enhancement of the fluorescence of rigidochromic probe molecules attached to one of the surfaces. Confinement of the molecules suppresses nonradiative decay and turns on the fluorescence. The approach is demonstrated by imaging of the contact area of a plastic sphere in contact with a flat glass surface. Our results agree excellently with the prediction of Hertz’s classical theory based on elastic deformation.

Dynamics of colloidal aggregation in microgravity by critical Casimir forces

By combining static and dynamic structure factor measurements under microgravity conditions, we obtain for the first time direct insight into the internal structure of colloidal aggregates formed over a wide range of particle attractions under ideal diffusion-limited conditions. By means of near-field scattering we measure the time-dependent density-density correlation function as the aggregation process evolves, and we determine the ratio of the hydrodynamic and gyration radius to elucidate the aggregates internal structure as a function of its fractal dimension. Surprisingly, we find that despite the large variation of particle interactions, the mass is always evenly distributed in all objects with fractal dimension ranging from 2.55 for shallow potentials to 1.78 for deep ones.

Visualizing the structural solid-liquid transition at colloidal crystal-fluid interfaces

The crystal/melt interface is central to the understanding of crystal nucleation and the morphological stability of crystal growth, but it is difficult to study experimentally. Micrometer-sized stimuli-dependent colloidal particles are assembled into large crystals using temperature fields. The structure of the colloidal crystal/melt interface is imaged directly in three dimensions. Interface reconstructions allow direct connection of the structure and interface free energy.

Molecular probes reveal deviations from Amontons' law in multi-asperity frictional contacts

Amontons’ law defines the friction coefficient as the ratio between friction force and normal force, and assumes that both these forces depend linearly on the real contact area between the two sliding surfaces. However, experimental testing of frictional contact models has proven difficult, because few in situ experiments are able to resolve this real contact area. Here, we present a contact detection method with molecular-level sensitivity. We find that while the friction force is proportional to the real contact area, the real contact area does not increase linearly with normal force. Contact simulations show that this is due to both elastic interactions between asperities on the surface and contact plasticity of the asperities. We reproduce the contact area and fine details of the measured contact geometry by including plastic hardening into the simulations. These new insights will pave the way for a quantitative microscopic understanding of contact mechanics and tribology.Amontons’ law assumes that friction and normal forces depend linearly on the contact area. Here, the authors use a new contact detection method to show that the law is broken because asperities interact and deform in the contact area to change it, thereby also changing the friction force.

Molecular Insight into the Slipperiness of Ice

Measurements of the friction coefficient of steel-on-ice over a large temperature range reveal very high friction at low temperatures (-100 °C) and a steep decrease in the friction coefficient with increasing temperature. Very low friction is only found over the limited temperature range typical for ice skating. The strong decrease in the friction coefficient with increasing temperature exhibits Arrhenius behavior with an activation energy of Ea ≈ 11.5 kJ mol-1. Remarkably, molecular dynamics simulations of the ice-air interface reveal a very similar activation energy for the mobility of surface molecules. Weakly hydrogen-bonded surface molecules diffuse over the surface in a rolling motion, their number and mobility increasing with increasing temperature. This correlation between macroscopic friction and microscopic molecular mobility indicates that slippery ice arises from the high mobility of its surface molecules, making the ice surface smooth and the shearing of the weakly bonded surface molecules easy.