Berend van der Meer, Taiki Yanagishima, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2025 134 078202

How frictional effects emerge at the microscopic level in particulate materials remains a challenging question, particularly in systems subject to thermal fluctuations due to the transient nature of interparticle contacts. Here, we directly relate particle-level frictional arrest to local coordination in an attractive colloidal model system. We reveal that the orientational dynamics of particles slows down exponentially with increasing coordination number due to the emergence of frictional interactions, the strength of which can be tuned simply by varying the attraction strength. Using a simple computer simulation model, we uncover how the interparticle interactions govern the formation of frictional contacts between particles. Our results establish quantitative relations between friction, coordination, and interparticle interactions. This is a key step toward using interparticle friction to tune the mechanical properties of particulate materials.

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