Tracer Diffusion In A Soft Glassy Material

We have carried out Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching measurements of the diffusion of tracers of various sizes in a colloidal glass (a Laponite suspension). We have shown that the diffusion is only dependent on the ratio of the tracer size and the distance between Laponite disks. This suggests that the tracer diffusion hindrance in the glass stems from the hydrodynamical interactions between the tracer and the Laponite network, the physico-chemical Laponite-tracer interaction playing a negligible role.