Three-dimensional Binary Superlattices of Oppositely-charged Colloids

Abstract

We report the equilibrium self-assembly of binary crystals of oppositely-charged colloidal microspheres at high density. By varying the magnitude of the charge on near equal-sized spheres we show that the structure of the binary crystal may be switched between face-centered cubic, cesium chloride and sodium chloride. We interpret these transformations in terms of a competition between entropic and Coulombic forces.

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Determination of phase diagrams via computer simulation: Methodology and applications to water, electrolytes and proteins
• Controlling crystallization and its absence: Proteins, colloids and patchy models
• Evidence for out-of-equilibrium crystal nucleation in suspensions of oppositely charged colloids
• Out-of-equilibrium processes in suspensions of oppositely charged colloids: liquid-to-crystal nucleation and gel formation
• Symmetry effects in electrostatic interactions between two arbitrarily charged spherical shells in the Debye-Hückel approximation
• Modelling fluids and crystals using a two-component modified phase field crystal model
• Gas-liquid phase separation in oppositely charged colloids: stability and interfacial tension
• Spontaneous Crystallization in Systems of Binary Hard Sphere Colloids
• Rotational averaging-out gravitational sedimentation of colloidal dispersions and phenomena
• Crystal-to-Crystal Transitions in Binary Mixtures of Soft Colloids
• Surface-charge-induced freezing of colloidal suspensions
• Magnetic assembly and annealing of colloidal lattices and superlattices
• Poisson-Boltzmann for oppositely charged bodies: an explicit derivation
• Liquid-gas separation in colloidal electrolytes
• Kinetically driven ordered phase formation in binary colloidal crystals
• Lattice-switch Monte Carlo for binary hard-sphere crystals
• Effects of fluctuations on correlation functions in inhomogeneous mixtures
• Low temperature behaviour and glass line of the symmetrical colloidal electrolyte
• A Linear Scaling in Accuracy Numerical Method for Computing the Electrostatic Forces in the $N$-Body Dielectric Spheres Problem