Abstract
Colloidal particles in geometrical confinement display a complex variety of packing structures different from their three-dimensional (3D) bulk counterpart. Here, we confined charged rodlike colloids with long-ranged repulsions to a thin wedge-shaped cell and show, by quantitative 3D confocal microscopy, that not only their positional but also their orientational order depends sensitively upon the slit width. Synchronized with transitions in lattice symmetry and number of layers confinement induces plastic crystal-to-crystal transitions. A model analysis suggests that this complex sequence of more or less rotationally ordered states originates from the subtle competition between the electrostatic repulsion of a rod with the wall and with its neighbors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 078301 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 115 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 11 Aug 2015 |
Funding
B. L. and T. H. B. acknowledge support from the Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM). This research was also carried out partially (T. H. B.) under Project No. M62.7.08SDMP25 in the framework of the Industrial Partnership Program on Size Dependent Material Properties of the Materials innovation institute (M2i). Part of the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. [291667].
Keywords
- HARD-SPHERES
- CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY
- COLLOIDAL CRYSTALS
- PHASE-BEHAVIOR
- RODS
- MACROMOLECULES
- SUSPENSIONS
- NANORODS
- SYSTEM
- PLATES
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