Measuring local volume fraction, long-wavelength correlations, and fractionation in a phase-separating polydisperse fluid

Williamson, John J.; Evans, R. M. L.

doi:10.1063/1.4897560

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(129 reference statements)

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“…This tool counts the number of objects within a small shell at a distance away from a central particle and averaged over all particles in the system. Local free volume and the complementary metric, covering area 33 , can be calculated by partitioning the substrate into a Voronoi tessellation around each individual particle (Fig. 2(b) and (e) ) 34 .…”

Section: Structural Order Drives Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

disLocate: tools to rapidly quantify local intermolecular structure to assess two-dimensional order in self-assembled systems

Bumstead

Liang

Hanta

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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Order classification is particularly important in photonics, optoelectronics, nanotechnology, biology, and biomedicine, as self-assembled and living systems tend to be ordered well but not perfectly. Engineering sets of experimental protocols that can accurately reproduce specific desired patterns can be a challenge when (dis)ordered outcomes look visually similar. Robust comparisons between similar samples, especially with limited data sets, need a finely tuned ensemble of accurate analysis tools. Here we introduce our numerical Mathematica package disLocate, a suite of tools to rapidly quantify the spatial structure of a two-dimensional dispersion of objects. The full range of tools available in disLocate give different insights into the quality and type of order present in a given dispersion, accessing the translational, orientational and entropic order. The utility of this package allows for researchers to extract the variation and confidence range within finite sets of data (single images) using different structure metrics to quantify local variation in disorder. Containing all metrics within one package allows for researchers to easily and rapidly extract many different parameters simultaneously, allowing robust conclusions to be drawn on the order of a given system. Quantifying the experimental trends which produce desired morphologies enables engineering of novel methods to direct self-assembly.

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Section: Structural Order Drives Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

disLocate: tools to rapidly quantify local intermolecular structure to assess two-dimensional order in self-assembled systems

Bumstead

Liang

Hanta

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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“…52 and 53. There are a few other theoretical investigations of polydisperse colloidal dynamics in the literature, where simulations are implemented and some aspects of fractionation investigated. 42,54,55 As a result, the dynamics of phase separation in polydisperse colloids remains a challenging (and mostly unsolved) problem. One of the difficulties is that the kinetics of phase separation could be so slow as to make the actual equilibrium phase compositions unobservable in experiments.…”

Section: Below)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Phase separation dynamics of polydisperse colloids: a mean-field lattice-gas theory

Castro

Sollich

2017

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.

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New insights into phase separation in colloidal suspensions are provided via a new dynamical theory based on the Polydisperse Lattice-Gas model. The model gives a simplified description of polydisperse colloids, incorporating a hard-core repulsion combined with polydispersity in the strength of the attraction between neighbouring particles. Our mean-field equations describe the local concentration evolution for each of an arbitrary number of species, and for an arbitrary overall composition of the system. We focus on the predictions for the dynamics of colloidal gas-liquid phase separation after a quench into the coexistence region. The critical point and the relevant spinodal curves are determined analytically, with the latter depending only on three moments of the overall composition. The results for the early-time spinodal dynamics show qualitative changes as one crosses a 'quenched' spinodal that excludes fractionation and so allows only density fluctuations at fixed composition. This effect occurs for dense systems, in agreement with a conjecture by Warren that, at high density, fractionation should be generically slow because it requires inter-diffusion of particles. We verify this conclusion by showing that the observed qualitative changes disappear when direct particle-particle swaps are allowed in the dynamics. Finally, the rich behaviour beyond the spinodal regime is examined, where we find that the evaporation of gas bubbles with strongly fractionated interfaces causes long-lived composition heterogeneities in the liquid phase; we introduce a two-dimensional density histogram method that allows such effects to be easily visualized for an arbitrary number of particle species.

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“…Local free volume and the complementary metric, covering area [ 30 ] can be calculated by partitioning the substrate into a Voronoi tessellation around each individual particle ( Figure 4 a,d) [ 31 ]. To define each cell of the tessellation, a perpendicular line at the midpoint along the line-of-sight vector connecting nearest neighbors around every particle is calculated.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthesis and Spatial Order Characterization of Controlled Silica Particle Sizes Organized as Photonic Crystals Arrays

et al. 2022

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The natural occurrence of precious opals, consisting of highly organized silica particles, has prompted interest in the synthesis and formation of these structures. Previous research has shown that a highly organized photonic crystal (PhC) array is only possible when it is based on a low polydispersity index (PDI) sample of particles. In this study, a solvent-only variation method is used to synthesize different sizes of silica particles (SiPs) by following the traditional sol-gel Stöber approach. The controlled rate of the addition of the reagents promoted the homogeneity of the nucleation and growth of the spherical silica particles, which in turn yielded a low PDI. The opalescent PhC were obtained via self-assembly of these particles using a solvent evaporation method. Analysis of the spatial statistics, using Voronoi tessellations, pair correlation functions, and bond order analysis showed that the successfully formed arrays showed a high degree of quasi-hexagonal (hexatic) organization, with both global and local order. Highly organized PhC show potential for developing future materials with tunable structural reflective properties, such as solar cells, sensing materials, and coatings, among others.

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Measuring local volume fraction, long-wavelength correlations, and fractionation in a phase-separating polydisperse fluid

Cited by 6 publications

References 42 publications

disLocate: tools to rapidly quantify local intermolecular structure to assess two-dimensional order in self-assembled systems

disLocate: tools to rapidly quantify local intermolecular structure to assess two-dimensional order in self-assembled systems

Phase separation dynamics of polydisperse colloids: a mean-field lattice-gas theory

Synthesis and Spatial Order Characterization of Controlled Silica Particle Sizes Organized as Photonic Crystals Arrays

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