Critical behavior of nanoparticle-containing binary liquid mixtures

Abstract

Simultaneous measurements of small-angle neutron scattering and dynamic light scattering have been performed on a binary mixture of partially miscible liquids, 2,6-dimethylpyridine and water. At critical composition the temperature dependence of the correlation length of fluctuations in composition is strongly affected by the addition of nanoparticles of a triblock copolymer polyethylene oxide–polypropylene oxide–polyethylene oxide. A crossover between Ising-type critical behavior and mean-field critical behavior is observed when the correlation length is equal to the size of the nanoparticles.