Glasslike Kinetic Arrest at the Colloidal-Gelation Transition

Abstract

We show that gelation of weakly attractive colloids is remarkably similar to the colloidal glass transition. Like the glass transition, dynamic light scattering functions near gelation scale with scattering vector, and exhibits a two-step decay with a power-law divergence of the final decay time. Like the glass transition, static light scattering does not change upon gelation. These results suggest that, like the glass transition, gelation results from kinetic arrest due to crowding of clusters, and that both gelation and the glass transition are manifestations of a more general jamming transition.