Diffusion, phase behavior, and gelation in a two-dimensional layer of colloids in osmotic equilibrium with a polymer reservoir

The addition of enough non-adsorbing polymers to an otherwise stable colloidal suspension gives rise to a variety of phase behaviors and kinetic arrest due to the depletion attraction induced between the colloids by the polymers. We report a study of these phenomena in a two-dimensional layer of colloids. The three-dimensional phenomenology of crystal–fluid coexistence is reproduced, but gelation takes a novel form, in which the strands in the gel structure are locally crystalline. We compare our findings with a previous simulation and theory and find substantial agreement.