0000000000009505
AUTHOR
Jianing Liu
Phase behaviour of binary mixtures of colloidal charged spheres
Abstract As a step towards the modelling of binary metal alloys we here report on the shape of the phase boundary of two deionized charged sphere colloidal suspensions as a function of mixing ratio and particle density. Their size ratios are r = 0.68 and r = 0.56. Both aqueous suspensions of polystyrene copolymer spheres crystallize in a body-centred cubic structure. Interesting differences in the shape of the phase boundary are observed. In the first case a peaked increase of crystal stability was observed for a mixing ratio of p = 0.2–0.3, which gives the fraction of small spheres. Also in the second case the stability of the crystalline phase is larger than expected for an ideal solid so…
Crystal growth kinetics in deionised two-component colloidal suspensions
We report first measurements of the crystal growth velocity in deionised two-component aqueous suspensions of charged polystyrene latex spheres. The size ratio was 1:1.3 and mixing ratios up to 18% of the larger particle were investigated. For the pure components limiting growth velocities of (V ∞,120 = 4.8 µm s−1 and V ∞,156 = 2.9 µm s−1) were observed. In the mixture v drops with increasing mixing ratio even below (V ∞,156) of the large minority component. Careful monitoring of the deionisation procedure excludes the explanation of enhanced ionic contamination. Alternatives based on the kinetics of particle attachment and the position of the phase boundary are discussed.
Heterogeneous nucleation of colloidal melts under the influence of shearing fields
Large, oriented single crystals may be obtained from shear melts of colloidal particles after nucleation at the container walls. We are here interested in the processes occurring during the initial phase of their formation. Using different microscopic and scattering techniques we here studied highly charged suspensions of spherical particles, dispersed in low salt or deionized water, in single and double wall confinement, during and after cessation of shear. While the equilibrium phase of our colloidal solids is body centred cubic, the shear induced precursors of heterogeneous nuclei consist of wall based, oriented, registered or freely sliding layers with in plane hexagonal symmetry. Cessa…
An Improved Empirical Relation to Determine the Particle Number Density of Fluid-Like Ordered Charge-Stabilized Suspensions
Polystyrene as an archetypal charge-stabilized colloid model system was used in this work under well defined preparation conditions. A continuous preparation technique was used to control the suspension parameters salt concentration c and particle number density n. Measurements of n were performed using both conductivity in the completely deionized state and static light scattering. We found a significant deviation between the position of the first maximum of the static structure factor qmax=2π/L and an estimate identifying the relevant length scale L with the average inter-particle distance d¯=n−1/3. Instead, qmax was observed to follow the relation qmax=(2.20±0.03)π/d¯, which is equivalen…