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Seed- and wall-induced heterogeneous nucleation in charged colloidal model systems under microgravity

Hans Joachim Schöpe1 and Patrick Wette2,*

  • 1Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7, DE-55128 Mainz, Germany
  • 2Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), DE-51170 Köln, Germany

  • *Present address: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Space Administration, DE-53227 Bonn, Germany.
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Phys. Rev. E 83, 051405 – Published 27 May, 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.83.051405

Abstract

Understanding the process that drives an undercooled fluid to the crystal state is still a challenging issue for condensed matter physics and plays a key role in designing new materials. The crystallization kinetics and the resulting polycrystalline morphology are given by a complex interplay of crystal nucleation, growth, and ripening. A great deal of progress has been made in recent years using colloidal suspensions as model systems in the study of crystallization. Close analogies to atomic systems are observed which can be exploited to address questions not accessible in atomic solidification. Here we present systematic measurements of the crystallization kinetics of a charged colloidal model system adding small amounts of seeds using time resolved scattering techniques. Large seeds show strong sedimentation under gravity even on the time scale of the crystallization process. To avoid this problem we performed our measurements under microgravity during parabolic flights. We report how the seed size and structure affect crystal nucleation and growth as functions of metastability giving the possibility to modify the crystallization process and the resulting microstructure of the polycrystal.

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      Phys. Rev. E 83, 051405– Published 27 May, 2011
      • Received 17 January 2011

      ©2011 American Physical Society

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