Sedimentation and multi-phase equilibria in mixtures of platelets and ideal polymer

The role of gravity in the phase behaviour of mixtures of hard colloidal plates without and with non-adsorbing ideal polymer is explored theoretically. By analyzing the (macroscopic) osmotic equilibrium conditions, we show that sedimentation of the colloidal platelets is significant on a height range of even a centimeter. Gravity enables the system to explore a large density range within the height of a test tube which may give rise to the simultaneous presence of multiple phases. As to plate-polymer mixtures, it is shown that sedimentation may lead to a four-phase equilibrium involving an isotropic gas and liquid phase, nematic and columnar phase. The phenomenon has been observed experimentally in systems of colloidal gibbsite platelets mixed with PDMS polymer.