Flowing structures in soft crystals
Monday, August 8, 2011 - 10:31
in Physics & Chemistry
What is common to blood, ink and gruel? They are all liquids in which tiny particles are suspended so called colloids. In some of these liquids, the particles form groups (clusters), which form regular structures, much like atoms in a crystal. A team of researchers from TU Vienna and Vienna University has now managed to study the remarkable properties of these crystal-like substances in computer simulations. Under mechanical strain, the crystalline pattern can change into a different structure, or it can vanish completely.