Chemistry Letters, Vol.41, No.10, 1163-1165, 2012
Striation Pattern of Impurity Particles in Charged Colloidal Crystals Formed by Stepwise Thermally Induced Crystallization
Charged colloids form "crystal" structures, wherein the colloidal particles are regularly arranged as a result of strong electrostatic interparticle interactions. We have reported that silica colloids containing pyridine (Py) form colloidal crystals upon heating. Herein, we report that in Py + silica colloids including small numbers of fluorescent polystyrene (PS) particles, the PS particles are arranged in stripe patterns upon stepwise unidirectional crystallization when the temperature is increased by 1 degrees C every 10 and 15 min. We think that the present stripe patterns are closely analogous to the thermally induced striations found in a number of crystalline materials.