Recently, researchers have gained new insight into the mechanism behind colloidal gels, a type of material made up of microscopic particles suspended in a solvent. The research, published in the journal Nature Materials, suggests that the mechanism of gel formation in these materials is fundamentally different from that of conventional gels. Specifically, the team discovered that colloidal gels form due to the presence of an attractive force between the particles, rather than the traditional mechanism of entanglement between particles. This new understanding of how colloidal gels form could have far-reaching implications for the development of materials for a variety of applications.

Read Full Article Here

source: Phys.org