Glass transition in binary mixture of colloidal ellipsoids and spheres

Abstract

The nature of glass and glass transition are considered to be one of the most fundamental research problems in condensed matter physics. Colloidal suspension provides a novel model system for studying glass and glass transition, since the structures and dynamics of a colloidal system can be quantitatively probed by video microscopy. Traditional systems for studying glass transition typically are single-component systems composed of either isotropic or anisotropic colloidal particles. Recently, glass transition of mixture of isotropic and anisotropic colloids has attracted great attention, such as the observation of rotational glass and translational glass, and the establishment of the two-step glass transition. Similarly, computer simulations have also shown that mixture of isotropic and anisotropic colloidal particles could manifest interesting, new glassy behaviors. However, the experimental study of the glass transition in such a colloidal mixture is still rare. In this paper, we experimentally investigate the glass transition of a binary mixture of colloidal ellipsoids and spheres. The colloidal spheres are polystyrene microspheres with a diameter of 1.6 m, and the ellipsoids are prepared by physically stretching from polystyrene microspheres of 2.5 m in diameter. The major and minor axes of the as-prepared ellipsoid are 2.0 m and 1.2 m, respectively. The mixture is confined between two glass slides to make a quasi-two-dimensional sample. To prevent the mixture from crystallizing, the mixing ratio of ellipsoids and spheres is chosen to be 1/4 in number, which is similar to the mixing ratio used in the classical Kob-Anderson model of binary sphere mixture. We systemically increase the area fraction of colloidal mixture to drive the glass transition. We then employ bright-field video microscopy to record the motion of the particles in the colloidal suspension at a single particle level, and the trajectories of individual particles are obtained by standard particle tracking algorithm. Through the analysis of radial distribution function, Voronoi diagram and local order parameter, we find that the ellipsoids can effectively inhibit the spheres from crystalizing, and the structure of the system remains disordered when increasing the area fraction. For dynamics, mean square displacement and self-intermediate scattering function are calculated. We find that the dynamic process of the system slows down substantially when increasing the area fraction, and the relaxation time of the system increases rapidly and diverges close to the glass transition point predicted by the mode coupling theory. Moreover, we analyze the fast particles that participate in cooperative rearrangement regions (CRRs) in the system, and find that the shapes, sizes and positions of CRRs are closely related to the locations of the ellipsoids in the system.