Crystallization in a sheared colloidal suspension

Abstract

We study numerically the crystallization process in a supersaturated suspension of repulsive colloidal particles driven by simple shear flow. The effect of the shear flow on crystallization is two-fold: while it suppresses the initial nucleation, once a large enough critical nucleus has formed its growth is enhanced by the shear flow. Combining both effects implies an optimal strain rate at which the overall crystallization rate has a maximum. To gain insight into the underlying mechanisms, we employ a discrete state model describing the transitions between the local structural configurations around single particles. We observe a time-scale separation between these transitions and the overall progress of the crystallization allowing for an effective Markovian description. By using this model, we demonstrate that the suppression of nucleation is due to the inhibition of a pre-structured liquid.

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• Homogeneous Nucleation of Sheared Liquids: Advances and Insights from Simulations and Theory
• Stochastic thermodynamics of a confined colloidal suspension under shear flow
• Ordered domains in sheared dense suspensions: the link to viscosity and the disruptive effect of friction
• Shear-induced laning transition in a confined colloidal film
• Depinning and heterogeneous dynamics of colloidal crystal layers under shear flow
• Shear Melting at the Crystal-Liquid Interface: Erosion and the Asymmetric Suppression of Interface Fluctuations
• Polydisperse hard spheres: Crystallization kinetics in small systems and role of local structure
• Surface melting and crystallisation driven by sedimentation: a particle resolved study
• Discrete state model of a self-aggregating colloidal system with directional interactions