Issue 3, 2012

Polymer-enforced crystallization of a eutectic binary hard sphere mixture

Abstract

We prepared a buoyancy matched binary mixture of polydisperse polystyrene microgel spheres of size ratio Γ = 0.785 at a volume fraction of Φ = 0.567 just below the kinetic glass transition. In line with theoretical expectations, a eutectic phase behaviour was observed, but only a minor fraction of the samples crystallized at all. By adding a short non-adsorbing polymer we enforce inter-species fractionation into coexisting pure component crystals, which in turn also shows signs of intra-species fractionation. We show that in formerly inaccessible regions of the phase diagram binary hard sphere physics are made observable using attractive hard spheres.

Graphical abstract: Polymer-enforced crystallization of a eutectic binary hard sphere mixture

Associated articles

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
08 Sep 2011
Accepted
04 Nov 2011
First published
06 Dec 2011

Soft Matter, 2012,8, 627-630

Polymer-enforced crystallization of a eutectic binary hard sphere mixture

A. Kozina, D. Sagawe, P. Díaz-Leyva, E. Bartsch and T. Palberg, Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 627 DOI: 10.1039/C1SM06699D

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