Two-dimensional freezing criteria for crystallizing colloidal monolayers
- Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay (Hong Kong)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 (United States)
Video microscopy was employed to explore crystallization of colloidal monolayers composed of diameter-tunable microgel spheres. Two-dimensional (2D) colloidal liquids were frozen homogenously into polycrystalline solids, and four 2D criteria for freezing were experimentally tested in thermal systems for the first time: the Hansen-Verlet freezing rule, the Loewen-Palberg-Simon dynamical freezing criterion, and two other rules based, respectively, on the split shoulder of the radial distribution function and on the distribution of the shape factor of Voronoi polygons. Importantly, these freezing criteria, usually applied in the context of single crystals, were demonstrated to apply to the formation of polycrystalline solids. At the freezing point, we also observed a peak in the fluctuations of the orientational order parameter and a percolation transition associated with caged particles. Speculation about these percolated clusters of caged particles casts light on solidification mechanisms and dynamic heterogeneity in freezing.
- OSTI ID:
- 21559853
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 132, Issue 15; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3372618; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-9606
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
CRYSTALLIZATION
FREEZING
GLASS
LIQUIDS
MELTING POINTS
MICROSCOPY
MOLECULAR CLUSTERS
MONOCRYSTALS
ORDER PARAMETERS
PARTICLES
PEAKS
PHOTOCHEMISTRY
POLYCRYSTALS
SOLIDIFICATION
SOLIDS
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
CHEMISTRY
CRYSTALS
DIMENSIONLESS NUMBERS
DISTRIBUTION
FLUIDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE