Chem. J. Chinese Universities ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1): 44.doi: 10.7503/cjcu20190602

• Letter • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Entropy-driven Crystallization of Colloid Particles Within Cylindrical Confinement

HOU Cuiling,ZHU Guolong,DAI Xiaobin,XU Ziyang,CHEN Pengyu,ZHANG Xuanyu,GAO Lijuan,YAN Litang()   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering,Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Received:2019-11-19 Online:2020-01-10 Published:2019-12-18
  • Contact: Litang YAN E-mail:ltyan@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    ? Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China No(21873053);and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province, China No(20161BAB206104)

Abstract:

The dynamic process of entropy-driven colloidal particle crystallization within cylindrical con?nement was investigated by Brownian dynamics simulations. In these densely-packed systems, the influence of volume fraction and number of particles on the crystal morphology and structure by cylindrical con?nement, as well as the crystallization process and growth mechanism of colloidal particles were studied, and the evolution of cylindrical crystal structure was simulated. It is found that at low volume fraction, the particle packing structure is gradually layered from concentric circles with the increase of the number of colloidal particles and cylindrical diameter, which is cue to the competition between boundary effect and lattice defect. Particularly, the entropy plays a dominant role in this process. Our findings provide insights into the control of crystal morphology of colloidal particles, deepen the understanding of entropy-driven ordered behavior in colloidal systems, and present a new approach for the structural construction and dynamics regulation for self-assembly of various colloidal systems.

Key words: Entropic ordering, Colloid crystal, Order transition, Cylindrical con?nement;, Computational modeling

CLC Number: 

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