Kinetic analyses of colloidal crystallization in shear flow

Effects of shear flow on phase nucleation and crystallization

Classical nucleation theory offers a good framework for understanding the common features of new phase formation processes in metastable homogeneous media at rest. However, nucleation processes in liquids are ubiquitously affected by hydrodynamic flow, and there is no satisfactory understanding of whether shear promotes or slows down the nucleation process. We developed a classical nucleation theory for sheared systems starting from the molecular level of the Becker-Doering master kinetic equation and we analytically derived a closed-form expression for the nucleation rate. The theory accounts for the effect of flow-mediated transport of molecules to the nucleus of the new phase, as well as for the mechanical deformation imparted to the nucleus by the flow field. The competition between flow-induced molecular transport, which accelerates nucleation, and flow-induced nucleus straining, which lowers the nucleation rate by increasing the nucleation energy barrier, gives rise to a marked nonmonotonic dependence of the nucleation rate on the shear rate. The theory predicts an optimal shear rate at which the nucleation rate is one order of magnitude larger than in the absence of flow.

Melting and crystallization of colloidal hard-sphere suspensions under shear

Shear-induced melting and crystallization were investigated by confocal microscopy in concentrated colloidal suspensions of hard-sphere-like particles. Both silica and polymethylmethacrylate suspensions were sheared with a constant rate in either a countertranslating parallel plate shear cell or a counterrotating cone-plate shear cell. These instruments make it possible to track particles undergoing shear for extended periods of time in a plane of zero velocity. Although on large scales, the flow profile deviated from linearity, the crystal flowed in an aligned sliding layer structure at low shear rates. Higher shear rates caused the crystal to shear melt, but, contrary to expectations, the transition was not sudden. Instead, although the overall order decreased with shear rate, this was due to an increase in the nucleation of localized domains that temporarily lost and regained their ordered structure. Even at shear rates that were considered to have melted the crystal as a whole, ordered regions kept showing up at times, giving rise to very large fluctuations in 2D bond-orientational order parameters. Low shear rates induced initially disordered suspensions to crystallize. This time, the order parameter increased gradually in time without large fluctuations, indicating that shear-induced crystallization of hard spheres does not proceed via a nucleation and growth mechanism. We conclude that the dynamics of melting and crystallization under shear differ dramatically from their counterparts in quiescent suspensions.

Shear effects on crystal nucleation in colloidal suspensions

Extensive two-dimensional Langevin dynamics simulations are used to determine the effect of steady shear flows on the crystal nucleation kinetics of charge stabilized colloids and colloids whose pair potential possess an attractive shallow well of a few k_{B}T 's (attractive colloids). Results show that in both types of systems small amounts of shear speeds up the crystallization process and enhances the quality of the growing crystal significantly. Moderate shear rates, on the other hand, destroy the ordering in the system. The very high shear rate regime where a reentering transition to the ordered state could exist is not considered in this work. In addition to the crystal nucleation phenomena, the analysis of the transport properties and the characterization of the steady state regime under shear are performed.

Crystallization kinetics of colloidal spheres under stationary shear flow

A systematic experimental study of dispersions of charged colloidal spheres is presented on the effect of steady shear flow on nucleation and crystal growth rates. In addition, the nonequilibrium phase diagram as it relates to the melting line is measured. Shear flow is found to strongly affect induction times, crystal growth rates, and the location of the melting line. The main findings are that (1) the crystal growth rate for a given concentration exhibits a maximum as a function of the shear rate; (2) contrary to the monotonic increase in the growth rate with increasing concentration in the absence of flow, a maximum of the crystal growth rate as a function of concentration is observed for sheared systems; and (3) the induction time for a given concentration exhibits a maximum as a function of the shear rate. These findings are partly explained on a qualitative level.