Alloy structures in binary mixtures of highly deionized colloids at sedimentation equilibrium

Phase behaviour of deionized binary mixtures of charged colloidal spheres

We review recent work on the phase behaviour of binary charged sphere mixtures as a function of particle concentration and composition. Both size ratios Γ and charge ratios Λ are varied over a wide range. Unlike the case for hard spheres, the long-ranged Coulomb interaction stabilizes the crystal phase at low particle concentrations and shifts the occurrence of amorphous solids to particle concentrations considerably larger than the freezing concentration. Depending on Γ and Λ, we observe upper azeotrope, spindle, lower azeotrope and eutectic types of phase diagrams, all known well from metal systems. Most solids are of body centred cubic structure. Occasionally stoichiometric compounds are formed at large particle concentrations. For very low Γ, entropic effects dominate and induce a fluid-fluid phase separation. Since for charged spheres the charge ratio Λ is also decisive for the type of phase diagram, future experiments with charge variable silica spheres are suggested.

Enhanced crystal stability in a binary mixture of charged colloidal spheres

We report on the phase behavior of a binary charged sphere mixture of size ratio Gamma=0.68 and charge ratio Lambda approximately 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 and nucleation rate densities, with small but significant anomalies at p*=0.2 . These correlated deviations can be rationalized within classical theories of solidification and suggest an increased similarity between melt and solid for this particular composition.

Exotic crystal superstructures of colloidal crystals in confinement

Colloidal model systems have been used for over three decades for investigating liquids, crystals, and glasses. Colloidal crystal superstructures have been observed in binary systems of repulsive spheres as well as oppositely charged sphere systems showing structures well known from atomic solids. In this work we study the structural transition of colloidal crystals under confinement. In addition to the known sequence of crystalline structures, crystal superstructures with dodecagonal and hexagonal symmetry are observed in one component systems. These structures have no atomic counterpart.