Search results for "Colloid"

Regular Horizontal Patterning on Colloidal Crystals Produced by Vertical Deposition

2009

Colloidal particles have proved to be a suitable precursor to the formation of nanoscaled materials. More explicitly, they are a suitable way to create photonic band gap materials in 3D. Several methods have been developed to assemble colloidal multilayer systems, and have yielded various levels of success. The vertical deposition method has shown itself to be one of the best in terms of time, control of the final product, crystal size and homogeneity. Despite this, the resulting crystals often present point defects, dislocations, cracks and polycrystallinity, as well as a horizontal modulation of film thickness. These defects compromise the possible utilities of the crystals. The study of …

Enhanced crystal stability in a binary mixture of charged colloidal spheres.

2009

We report on the phase behavior of a binary charged sphere mixture of size ratio $\ensuremath{\Gamma}=0.68$ and charge ratio $\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremath{\approx}1$ as a function of composition $p$ and number density $n$. For $p=0.1--0.3$ we observe freezing at densities well below the freezing densities of the pure components. At all compositions our data indicate the formation of substitutional alloy crystals of body centered cubic structure. No indications for compound formation were observed. Rather, our findings point at the first observation of an upper azeotrope. Measurements of the crystallization kinetics reveal a combined density and composition dependence of growth velocities…

Classical growth of hard-sphere colloidal crystals.

1995

The classical theory of nucleation and growth of crystals is examined for concentrated suspensions of hard-sphere colloidal particles. The work of Russel is modified, extended, and evaluated, explicitly. Specifically, the Wilson-Frenkel growth law is modified to include the Gibbs-Thomson effect and is evaluated numerically. The results demonstrate that there is a critical nucleus radius below which crystal nuclei will not grow. A kinetic coefficient determines the maximum growth velocity possible. For large values of this coefficient, quenches to densities above the melting density show interface limited growth with the crystal radius increasing linearly with time. For quenches into the coe…

Heterogeneous and homogeneous crystal nucleation in a colloidal model system of charged spheres at low metastabilities

2011

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…

Small changes in particle-size distribution dramatically delay and enhance nucleation in hard sphere colloidal suspensions.

2006

We present hard-sphere crystallization kinetics for three samples with small differences in polydispersity. We show that an increase in polydispersity of 1% is sufficient to cause dramatic changes in the crystallization kinetics: Crystallization is delayed by almost one decade in time and quantitative and qualitative changes in the crystallization scenario are observed. Surprisingly the nucleation rate density is enhanced by almost a factor of 10. We interpret these results in terms of polydispersity limited growth, where local fractionation processes lead to a delayed but faster nucleation.

Two-Step Crystallization Kinetics in Colloidal Hard-Sphere Systems

2005

The crystallization kinetics of colloidal hard spheres was studied using a special Bragg spectrometer with high sensitivity. In contrast with the classical scenario we observe a two-step nucleation process: the number of crystallites increases slowly at early times, followed by a dramatic reduction at intermediate times, prior to undergoing a rapid increase at late times. We explain these results in terms of a polydispersity limited growth of crystallites, where the crystallization at early times is governed by local fractionation processes, leading to a long delay prior to final crystallization.

Zirconocene-ate Zwitterionic Complexes: Preparation and X-ray Structure

1998

[Ag67(SPhMe2)32(PPh3)8]3+: Synthesis, Total Structure, and Optical Properties of a Large Box-Shaped Silver Nanocluster

2016

Engineering the surface ligands of metal nanoparticles is critical in designing unique arrangements of metal atoms. Here, we report the synthesis and total structure determination of a large box-shaped Ag67 nanocluster (NC) protected by a mixed shell of thiolate (2,4-dimethylbenzenethiolate, SPhMe2) and phosphine (triphenylphosphine, PPh3) ligands. Single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) revealed the cluster formula to be [Ag67(SPhMe2)32(PPh3)8]3+. The crystal structure shows an Ag23 metal core covered by a layer of Ag44S32P8 arranged in the shape of a box. The Ag23 core was formed through an unprecedented centered cuboctahedron, i.e.,…

Epoxidation of stilbene using supported gold nanoparticles: cumyl peroxyl radical activation at the gold nanoparticle surface.

2014

The catalytic epoxidation of cis-stilbene using cumene as a solvent in the presence of supported gold nanoparticles (AuNP) yields a mixture of cis and trans-stilbene oxides. EPR and product distribution studies support a new mechanistic proposal where oxygen centred radicals activate the AuNP surface and form active surface oxygen species responsible for the epoxidation products.

A New Aluminosilicate Molecular Sieve with a System of Pores between Those of ZSM-5 and Beta Zeolite

2011

[EN] A new aluminosilicate zeolite (ITQ-39) has been synthesized. This is an extensively faulted structure with very small domains that makes the structure elucidation very difficult. However, a combination of adsorption spectroscopy and reactivity studies with selected probe molecules suggests that the pore structure of ITQ-39 is related to that of Beta zeolite, with a three-directional channel system with large pores (12-MR), but with an effective pore diameter between those of Beta and ZSM-5, or a three-directional channel system with interconnected large (12-MR) and medium pores (10-MR). The pore topology of ITQ-39 is very attractive for catalysis and shows excellent results for the pre…