Drastic Variation of the Microstructure Formation in a Charged Sphere Colloidal Model System by Adding Merely Tiny Amounts of Larger Particles

作者：Engelbrecht Andreas; Schoepe Hans Joachim

来源：Crystal Growth & Design, 2010, 10(5): 2258-2266.

DOI：10.1021/cg9015806

We have investigated the changes of the crystallization scenario in charged sphere colloidal suspensions upon adding tiny amounts of a second, larger and higher charged particle species (size ratio 4.3, charge ratio 1.6). For even minute amounts of added particles, less than 1%, the whole crystallization behavior changes dramatically and for this reason the resulting microstructure of the solidified material. Both nucleation and growth of crystals slow down drastically and considerably coarsen the resulting microstructure. We show that this is related to a considerable decrease of the kinetic prefactors of both nucleation and growth, while at the same time the nucleation barrier height shows only a moderate 5% increase.

• 出版日期2010-5