PROFESSOR HIMADRI D. BOHIDAR

Colloidal dispersions exhibit concentration dependent hierarchical self-assembly, ergodicity breaking and aging dynamics when two discotic platelets of different aspect ratio are prepared in (1:1) ratio. Growth dynamics could be universally described by, and where is relative viscosity of gelling dispersion, and G0 is low frequency storage modulus of the gel. Smoluchowski aggregation model was used to describe the diffusion limited nucleation and growth of aggregates that eventually self-assembled to form entropic gels. Nucleation time determined from scattered intensity and ergodicity parameter were consistent. Ergodic to non-ergodic transition occurred on a time scale (ergodicity breaking time) that decreased with colloid concentration. Thus, colloids are good model systems to study self-assembly of nanoparticles and their higher order structures.