Fabricating large two-dimensional single colloidal crystals by doping with active particles

Abstract

Using simulations we explore the behaviour of two-dimensional colloidal (poly)crystals doped with active particles. We show that these active dopants can provide an elegant new route to removing grain boundaries in polycrystals. Specifically, we show that active dopants both generate and are attracted to defects, such as vacancies and interstitials, which leads to clustering of dopants at grain boundaries. The active particles both broaden and enhance the mobility of the grain boundaries, causing rapid coarsening of the crystal domains. The remaining defects recrystallize upon turning off the activity of the dopants, resulting in a large-scale single-domain crystal.

7 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Self-motile colloidal particles: from directed propulsion to random walk
• Scalar ${\varphi }^4$ field theory for active-particle phase separation
• Activity-induced phase separation and self-assembly in mixtures of active and passive particles
• Effective Cahn-Hilliard equation for the phase separation of active Brownian particles

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Active Particles in Complex and Crowded Environments
• Activity-controlled Annealing of Colloidal Monolayers
• Active Atoms and Interstitials in Two-dimensional Colloidal Crystals
• Active Brownian particles driven by constant affinity
• Thermodynamics and dynamics of two-dimensional systems with dipole-like repulsive interactions
• Inverse Solidification Induced by Active Janus Particles
• Binary pusher-puller mixtures of active microswimmers and their collective behavior
• Confinement-induced accumulation and spontaneous de-mixing of microscopic active-passive mixtures
• Following fluctuating signs: anomalous active superdiffusion of swimmers in anisotropic media
• Three-body correlations and conditional forces in suspensions of active hard disks
• Environmental Memory Boosts Group Formation of Clueless Individuals
• Self-assembly of active core corona particles into highly ordered and self-healing structures
• Universal reshaping of arrested colloidal gels via active doping
• Reconfiguration, Interrupted Aging and Enhanced Dynamics of a Colloidal Gel using Photo-Switchable Active Doping
• Derivation and analysis of a phase field crystal model for a mixture of active and passive particles
• Inertial self-propelled particles in anisotropic environments
• Active-passive mixtures with bulk loading: a minimal active engine in one dimension
• Geometric view of stochastic thermodynamics for non-equilibrium steady states
• Self-organised structures in mixed active-passive suspensions due to hydrodynamic interactions
• Arrhenius-Type Description and Noise-Composition Dependence of Single-Vacancy Hopping in Active Brownian Crystals