Crystal Nucleation of Highly-Screened Charged Colloids

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: de Jager, Marjolein, Filion, Laura
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2022
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author de Jager, Marjolein
Filion, Laura
author_facet de Jager, Marjolein
Filion, Laura
contents We study the nucleation of nearly-hard charged colloidal particles. We use Monte Carlo simulations in combination with free-energy calculations to accurately predict the phase diagrams of these particles and map them via the freezing density to hard spheres, then we use umbrella sampling to explore the nucleation process. Surprisingly, we find that even very small amounts of charge can have a significant effect on the phase behavior. Specifically, we find that phase boundaries and nucleation barriers are mostly dependent on the Debye screening length, and that even screening lengths as small as 2% of the particle diameter are sufficient to show marked differences in both. This work demonstrates clearly that even mildly charged colloids are not effectively hard spheres.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2206_13351
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Crystal Nucleation of Highly-Screened Charged Colloids
de Jager, Marjolein
Filion, Laura
Soft Condensed Matter
We study the nucleation of nearly-hard charged colloidal particles. We use Monte Carlo simulations in combination with free-energy calculations to accurately predict the phase diagrams of these particles and map them via the freezing density to hard spheres, then we use umbrella sampling to explore the nucleation process. Surprisingly, we find that even very small amounts of charge can have a significant effect on the phase behavior. Specifically, we find that phase boundaries and nucleation barriers are mostly dependent on the Debye screening length, and that even screening lengths as small as 2% of the particle diameter are sufficient to show marked differences in both. This work demonstrates clearly that even mildly charged colloids are not effectively hard spheres.
title Crystal Nucleation of Highly-Screened Charged Colloids
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.13351