Stability of Colloidal Quasicrystals
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-10-31 v1
Abstract
Freezing of charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions and relative stabilities of crystals and quasicrystals are studied using thermodynamic perturbation theory. Macroion interactions are modelled by effective pair potentials combining electrostatic repulsion with polymer-depletion or van der Waals attraction. Comparing free energies -- counterion terms included -- for elementary crystals and rational approximants to icosahedral quasicrystals, parameters are identified for which one-component quasicrystals are stabilized by a compromise between packing entropy and cohesive energy.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9803078,
title = {Stability of Colloidal Quasicrystals},
author = {A. R. Denton and H. Lowen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9803078},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures