Researchers at MIT have developed a new method for determining the structure and behavior of a class of widely used soft materials known as weak colloidal gels, which are found in everything from cosmetics to building materials. The study characterizes the gels over their entire evolution, as they change from mineral solutions to elastic gels and then glassy solids. The work uncovers the microstructural mechanisms underlying how the gels change naturally over time, and how their elastic properties also change, both over time and depending on the rate at which…
