Title | Crystallization kinetics of binary colloidal monolayers. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2016 |
Authors | AT Pham, R Seto, J Schönke, DY Joh, A Chilkoti, E Fried, and BB Yellen |
Journal | Soft Matter |
Volume | 12 |
Issue | 37 |
Start Page | 7735 |
Pagination | 7735 - 7746 |
Date Published | 10/2016 |
Abstract | Experiments and simulations are used to study the kinetics of crystal growth in a mixture of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles suspended in ferrofluid. The growth process is quantified using both a bond order parameter and a mean domain size parameter. The largest single crystals obtained in experiments consist of approximately 1000 particles and form if the area fraction is held between 65-70% and the field strength is kept in the range of 8.5-10.5 Oe. Simulations indicate that much larger single crystals containing as many as 5000 particles can be obtained under impurity-free conditions within a few hours. If our simulations are modified to include impurity concentrations as small as 1-2%, then the results agree quantitatively with the experiments. These findings provide an important step toward developing strategies for growing single crystals that are large enough to enable follow-on investigations across many subdisciplines in condensed matter physics. |
DOI | 10.1039/c6sm01072e |
Short Title | Soft Matter |