TY - JOUR
T1 - Role of diffusion in crystallization of hard-sphere colloids
AU - Lam, Michael A.
AU - Khusid, Boris
AU - Kondic, Lou
AU - Meyer, William V.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are thankful to Thomas Palberg, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz and Paul Chaikin, New York University for very helpful conversations and valuable comments on the earlier version of the paper. The work was supported in part by NASA Grant No. NNX16AQ79G, NSF Grant No. CBET-1832260, and Glenn Engineering and Research Support Contract No. 80GRC020D0003.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Physical Society.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Vital for a variety of industries, colloids also serve as an excellent model to probe phase transitions at the individual particle level. Despite extensive studies, origins of the glass transition in hard-sphere colloids discovered about 30 y ago remain elusive. Results of our numerical simulations and asymptotic analysis suggest that cessation of long-time particle diffusivity does not suppress crystallization of a metastable liquid-phase hard-sphere colloid. Once a crystallite forms, its growth is then controlled by the particle diffusion in the depletion zone surrounding the crystallite. Using simulations, we evaluate the solid-liquid interface mobility from data on colloidal crystallization in terrestrial and microgravity experiments and demonstrate that there is no drastic difference between the respective mobility values. The insight into the effect of vanishing particle mobility and particle sedimentation on crystallization of colloids will help engineer colloidal materials with controllable structure.
AB - Vital for a variety of industries, colloids also serve as an excellent model to probe phase transitions at the individual particle level. Despite extensive studies, origins of the glass transition in hard-sphere colloids discovered about 30 y ago remain elusive. Results of our numerical simulations and asymptotic analysis suggest that cessation of long-time particle diffusivity does not suppress crystallization of a metastable liquid-phase hard-sphere colloid. Once a crystallite forms, its growth is then controlled by the particle diffusion in the depletion zone surrounding the crystallite. Using simulations, we evaluate the solid-liquid interface mobility from data on colloidal crystallization in terrestrial and microgravity experiments and demonstrate that there is no drastic difference between the respective mobility values. The insight into the effect of vanishing particle mobility and particle sedimentation on crystallization of colloids will help engineer colloidal materials with controllable structure.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevE.104.054607
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.104.054607
M3 - Article
C2 - 34942784
AN - SCOPUS:85119957278
SN - 1063-651X
VL - 104
JO - Physical Review E - Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics
JF - Physical Review E - Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics
IS - 5
M1 - 054607
ER -