Sheared colloidal crystals in confined geometry: a real space study on stationary structures under shear
Abstract
We constructed an optical plate–plate shear cell suitable for the study of aqueous suspensions of charged colloidal spheres under low electrolyte concentrations (10−6 M). The variable gap height was adjusted to 30 μm corresponding to 15–30 interparticle distances. The concentration of 300 nm diameter polystyrene spheres was chosen around 1 μm−1 where previous studies had revealed the equilibrium structure to be fluid or body centred cubic. Under shear, layer structures of hexagonal symmetry form, often coexistent with a fluid phase. We used an adapted high resolution video