Waiting-time dependent non-equilibrium phase diagram of simple glass- And gel-forming liquids Article uri icon

abstract

  • Under numerous circumstances, many soft and hard materials are present in a puzzling wealth of non-equilibrium amorphous states, whose properties are not stationary and depend on preparation. They are often summarized in unconventional phase diagramsthat exhibit new phasesand/or transitionsin which time, however, is an essential variable. This work proposes a solution to the problem of theoretically defining and predicting these non-equilibrium phases and their time-evolving phase diagrams, given the underlying molecular interactions. We demonstrate that these non-equilibrium phases and the corresponding non-stationary (i.e., aging) phase diagrams can indeed be defined and predicted using the kinetic perspective of a novel non-equilibrium statistical mechanical theory of irreversible processes. This is illustrated with the theoretical description of the transient process of dynamic arrest into non-equilibrium amorphous solid phases of an instantaneously quenched simple model fluid involving repulsive hard-sphere plus attractive square well pair interactions. © 2021 Author(s).

publication date

  • 2021-01-01