Related papers: Separation and fractionation of order and disorder…
The equilibrium phase behaviour of hard spheres with size polydispersity is studied theoretically. We solve numerically the exact phase equilibrium equations that result from accurate free energy expressions for the fluid and solid phases,…
We describe how Monte Carlo simulation within the grand canonical ensemble can be applied to the study of phase behaviour in polydisperse fluids. Attention is focused on the case of fixed polydispersity in which the form of the `parent'…
Specialized Monte Carlo simulation techniques and moment free energy method calculations, capable of treating fractionation exactly, are deployed to study the crystalline phase behaviour of an assembly of spherical particles described by a…
We consider the nature of the fluid-solid phase transition in a polydisperse mixture of hard spheres. For a sufficiently polydisperse mixture crystallisation occurs with simultaneous fractionation. At the fluid-solid boundary, a broad fluid…
The phase diagram of soft spheres with size dispersion has been studied by means of an optimized Monte Carlo algorithm which allows to equilibrate below the kinetic glass transition for all sizes distribution. The system ubiquitously…
The statistical mechanics of phase transitions in dense systems of polydisperse particles presents distinctive challenges to computer simulation and analytical theory alike. The core difficulty, namely dealing correctly with particle size…
Hard spheres with a polydispersity above approximately 8% are shown to crystallise into two phase-separated solid phases. A polydispersity above 8% is too large to be tolerated by a single solid phase but phase separation produces two…
We calculate the phase behavior of hard spheres with size polydispersity, using accurate free energy expressions for the fluid and solid phases. Cloud and shadow curves, which determine the onset of phase coexistence, are found exactly by…
Unlike atoms, colloidal particles are not identical, but can only be synthesised within a finite size tolerance. Colloids are therefore polydisperse, i.e. mixtures of infinitely many components with sizes drawn from a continuous…
The solid-solid coexistence of a polydisperse hard sphere system is studied by using the Monte Carlo simulation. The results show that for large enough polydispersity the solid-solid coexistence state is more stable than the single-phase…
We dynamically simulate fractionation (partitioning of particle species) during spinodal gas-liquid separation of a size-polydisperse colloid, using polydispersity up to ~40% and a skewed parent size distribution. We introduce a novel…
In experimental systems, colloidal particles are virtually always at least somewhat polydisperse, which can have profound effects on their ability to crystallize. Unfortunately, accurately predicting the effects of polydispersity on phase…
Phase separation and coarsening is a phenomenon commonly seen in binary physical and chemical systems that occur in nature. Often times, thermal fluctuations, modeled as stochastic noise, are present in the system and the phase segregation…
Using Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation, we model gas-liquid spinodal decomposition in a size-polydisperse square well fluid, representing a 'near-monodisperse' colloidal dispersion. We find that fractionation (demixing) of particle sizes…
The width of the distribution of species in a polydisperse system is employed in a small-variable expansion, to obtain a well-controlled and compact scheme by which to calculate phase equilibria in multi-phase systems. General and universal…
Sedimentation and centrifugation can be used to sort particles by size, using a multistep (multicascade) method in which particles in the sediment are removed and the content of the supernatant is processed again, repeating the cycle…
Fractionation is necessary for self-assembly in multicomponent mixtures. Here, reversible fractionation and crystallization are realized and studied in a two-dimensional binary colloids which is supersaturated by enhancing the attraction…
We study the phase behavior of hard spheres confined between two parallel hard plates using extensive computer simulations. We determine the full equilibrium phase diagram for arbitrary densities and plate separations from one to five…
Much work has been devoted to analysing thermodynamic models for solid dispersions with a view to identifying regions in the phase diagram where amorphous phase separation or drug recrystallization can occur. However, detailed partial…
The conditions of multi-phase equilibrium are solved for generic polydisperse systems. The case of multiple polydispersity is treated, where several properties (e.g. size, charge, shape) simultaneously vary from one particle to another. By…