0000000000535360
AUTHOR
Andreas Engelbrecht
Drastic Variation of the Microstructure Formation in a Charged Sphere Colloidal Model System by Adding Merely Tiny Amounts of Larger Particles
We have investigated the changes of the crystallization scenario in charged sphere colloidal suspensions upon adding tiny amounts of a second, larger and higher charged particle species (size ratio 4.3, charge ratio 1.6). For even minute amounts of added particles, less than 1%, the whole crystallization behavior changes dramatically and for this reason the resulting microstructure of the solidified material. Both nucleation and growth of crystals slow down drastically and considerably coarsen the resulting microstructure. We show that this is related to a considerable decrease of the kinetic prefactors of both nucleation and growth, while at the same time the nucleation barrier height show…
Experimental visualization of inoculation using a charged colloidal model system
Inoculation is widely used to tune the microstructure of a polycrystalline solid from the melt and thus its material properties. We present here a systematic time resolved experimental study of inoculation in a charged colloidal model system investigating the changes of the crystallization scenario upon adding spherical seeds and show that the nucleation kinetics solely determines the resulting microstructure.
Heterogeneous and homogeneous crystal nucleation in a colloidal model system of charged spheres at low metastabilities
We have studied the nucleation kinetics in the bulk as well as at the container walls of a charged sphere colloidal model system under salt-free conditions close to the fluid–crystal phase boundary. We determined time resolved nucleation rate densities for heterogeneous nucleation on the wall, the corresponding nucleation rate densities for homogeneous nucleation and compare the resulting nucleation barrier heights. The homogeneous barrier height decreases exponentially with increasing metastability, while the heterogeneous barrier displays a sharp transition from a constant value close to the phase boundary to zero at higher metastability. As a consequence the microstructure evolution is d…
Competition between heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation near a flat wall
We studied the competition between heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation of an aqueous suspension of charged colloidal spheres close to the container walls. Samples of equilibrium crystalline structure were shear-melted and the metastable melt left to solidify after the cessation of shear. The crystallization kinetics was monitored using time-resolved scattering techniques: at low particle number densities n we applied an improved static light scattering method while at large particle concentrations ultra-small-angle x-ray scattering was applied for the first time. Our results show some unexpected behavior: the heterogeneous nucleation at the container walls is delayed in comparison to t…