Colloidal crystallization by a centrifugation method

✍ Scribed by Yoshihisa Suzuki; Tsutomu Sawada; Katsuhiro Tamura

• Book ID: 104022188
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 749 KB
• Volume: 318
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-0248
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2010.11.036

✦ Synopsis

Colloidal crystals of high particle concentration were smoothly and continuously fabricated by simple centrifugation of a dispersion of polystyrene particles in water. The larger the applied centrifugal acceleration a at the bottom of the growing crystals (i.e., the interior wall of the container), the higher the growth rates are. The average grain sizes in the crystals increased with decrease in a, and below a critical value of a, we obtained relatively large columnar-shaped grains. The average volume fraction of the obtained colloidal crystals f ave. increased with an increase in the dispersion's KCl concentration C KCl : at a¼82 G, f ave. ¼ 0.57 and 0.61 at C KCl ¼ 2 Â 10 À 3 and 8 Â 10 À 3 mol kg À 1 water, respectively. The grain size also increased with an increase in C KCl . The maximum grain size in this study was greater than 0.3 mm in width and 8 mm in length.