Entropy-driven formation of large icosahedral colloidal clusters by spherical confinement

Experiments with colloidal nano- and microparticles and computer simulations show that, unexpectedly, confinement and entropy are sufficient for the formation of icosahedral crystalline clusters of up to about 100,000 particles. Icosahedral symmetry, which is not compatible with truly long-range ord...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2015-01, Vol.14 (1), p.56-60
Main Authors: de Nijs, Bart, Dussi, Simone, Smallenburg, Frank, Meeldijk, Johannes D., Groenendijk, Dirk J., Filion, Laura, Imhof, Arnout, van Blaaderen, Alfons, Dijkstra, Marjolein
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/119/1002
639/925/357/354
Biomaterials
Clusters
Colloids
Condensed Matter Physics
Confinement
Crystallization
Crystals
Entropy
Formations
Icosahedral phase
letter
Long range order
Materials Science
Nanoparticles
Nanostructure
Nanotechnology
Optical and Electronic Materials
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Summary:Experiments with colloidal nano- and microparticles and computer simulations show that, unexpectedly, confinement and entropy are sufficient for the formation of icosahedral crystalline clusters of up to about 100,000 particles. Icosahedral symmetry, which is not compatible with truly long-range order, can be found in many systems, such as liquids, glasses, atomic clusters, quasicrystals and virus-capsids 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 . To obtain arrangements with a high degree of icosahedral order from tens of particles or more, interparticle attractive interactions are considered to be essential 1 , 3 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 . Here, we report that entropy and spherical confinement suffice for the formation of icosahedral clusters consisting of up to 100,000 particles. Specifically, by using real-space measurements on nanometre- and micrometre-sized colloids, as well as computer simulations, we show that tens of thousands of hard spheres compressed under spherical confinement spontaneously crystallize into icosahedral clusters that are entropically favoured over the bulk face-centred cubic crystal structure 13 , 14 . Our findings provide insights into the interplay between confinement and crystallization and into how these are connected to the formation of icosahedral structures.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/nmat4072