Low temperature behavior and glass line in the symmetrical colloidal electrolyte

We report on the low temperature behavior of the colloidal electrolyte by means of molecular dynamics simulations, where the electrostatic interactions were modeled using effective screened interactions. As in previous works, we have found a region of gas-liquid coexistence located in the low T–low ρ region. At temperatures much lower than the critical one, the system cannot reach equilibrium, that is, the gas-liquid transition is arrested. Two different mechanisms have been identified to cause arrest: crowding at intermediate T values, associated with the crossing point between the binodal and the glass line, and a gelationlike arrest at very low T. To test the latter, the dynamics of the colloidal electrolyte near this crossing point has been computed and compared to the universal predictions of the ideal mode-coupling theory. As in other glass-forming liquids, we found good agreement between this mean field theory and the dynamics of this complex system, although it fails just at the transition. Interestingly, in this region we found that the dynamics of this system is driven mainly by the steric interactions, showing all the typical properties of a repulsive colloidal glass. Finally, the isodiffusivity lines show that in this system with short-range attractions, there is no reentrant glass phenomenon as opposed to monocomponent attractive systems.