Short-Time Glassy Dynamics in Viscous Protein Solutions with Competing Interactions

Phys Rev Lett. 2015 Nov 27;115(22):228302. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.228302. Epub 2015 Nov 24.

Abstract

The glass transition of colloidal dispersions interacting with both a short-ranged attraction and long-ranged repulsion is studied using highly purified lysozyme solutions. Newtonian liquid behavior is observed at all conditions while measurements of the dynamics in the short-time limit show features typical of glassy colloidal systems at high protein concentrations. This interesting behavior is due to the competition of the attraction and repulsion that produces a heterogeneous microstructure only at intermediate range length scales. The results demonstrate that theories for the macroscopic properties of systems with competing interactions need to include intermediate range order.