Nonclassical Nucleation in a Solid-Solid Transition of Confined Hard Spheres

W. Qi, Yi Peng, Yilong Han, Richard Bowles, M. Dijkstra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

A solid-solid phase transition of colloidal hard spheres confined between two planar hard walls is studied
using a combination of molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulation. The transition from a solid
consisting of five crystalline layers with square symmetry (5□) to a solid consisting of four layers with
triangular symmetry (4△) is shown to occur through a nonclassical nucleation mechanism that involves
the initial formation of a precritical liquid cluster, within which the cluster of the stable 4△ phase grows.
Free-energy calculations show that the transition occurs in one step, crossing a single free-energy barrier,
and that the critical nucleus consists of a small 4△ solid cluster wetted by a metastable liquid. In addition,
the liquid cluster and the solid cluster are shown to grow at the planar hard walls. We also find that the
critical nucleus size increases with supersaturation, which is at odds with classical nucleation theory.
The △-solid-like cluster is shown to contain both face-centered-cubic and hexagonal-close-packed ordered
particles.
Original languageEnglish
Article number185701
Number of pages5
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume115
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Oct 2015

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Nonclassical Nucleation in a Solid-Solid Transition of Confined Hard Spheres'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this