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Collective diffusion coefficient of a charged colloidal dispersion: interferometric measurements in a drying drop

In the present work, we use Mach-Zehnder interferometry to thoroughly investigate the drying dynamics of a 2D confined drop of a charged colloidal dispersion. This technique makes it possible to measure the colloid concentration field during the drying of the drop at a high accuracy (about 0.5%) and with a high temporal and spatial resolution (about 1 frame/s and 5 $μ$m/pixel). These features allow us to probe mass transport of the charged dispersion in this out-of-equilibrium situation. In particular, our experiments provide the evidence that mass transport within the drop can be described by a purely diffusive process for some range of parameters for which the buoyancy-driven convection is negligible. We are then able to extract from these experiments the collective diffusion coefficient of the dispersion $D(φ)$ over a wide concentration range $φ=0.24$-$0.5$, i.e. from the liquid dispersed state to the solid glass regime, with a high accuracy. The measured values of $D(φ)\simeq 5$-$12 D_0$ are significantly larger than the simple estimate $D_0$ given by the Stokes-Einstein relation, thus highlighting the important role played by the colloidal interactions in such dispersions.