Quantitative Study on the Microstructure of Colloidal Fat Crystal Networks and Fractal Dimensions

This paper highlights the most recent progress in the quantitative study on the microstructure and the rheological properties of colloidal fat crystal networks. Several physical models describing the structural hierarchy of the colloidal fat crystal networks are reviewed here, with particular emphasis on fractal model, which can be used to explain the scaling behavior of fat crystal networks. The concept of the fractal dimension has been extensively used in the quantitative study of the microstructure of fat crystal networks and other colloidal networks; however, the relationship between the fractal dimension value and microstructural characteristics remains somewhat nebulous. Recent computer simulation work from our laboratory will be presented relating simulated microstructural features to values of particular measure of fractality including the box-counting, particle counting and Fourier-transform fractal dimensions.