Brownian motion of optically anisotropic particles in weak polymer gels

Abstract

The translational and rotational dynamics of optically anisotropic colloidal particles in viscoelastic polymer gels is studied by dynamic light scattering. Polymer gels are formed by polymerization of acrylamide and bis-acrylamide, as cross-linking agent, in water. Particles with crystalline internal structure are made by emulsification of liquid crystal at the nematic phase and a further consolidation. In this work we consider only low fractions of cross-linking, where the systems are ergodic and gaussian statistics is valid. Experimental results for the rotational and translational mean squared displacements, showing the effect of the system's viscoelasticity on both diffusion modes, can be fitted to an extended model of Brownian particles harmonically bounded to a multicomponent of weak elastic restoring forces.