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Crystallization of Hard Sphere Colloids in Microgravity: Results of the Colloidal Disorder-Order Transition, CDOT on USML-2Classical hard spheres have long served as a paradigm for our understanding of the structure of liquids, crystals, and glasses and the transitions between these phases. Ground-based experiments have demonstrated that suspensions of uniform polymer colloids are near-ideal physical realizations of hard spheres. However, gravity appears to play a significant and unexpected role in the formation and structure of these colloidal crystals. In the microgravity environment of the Space Shuttle, crystals grow purely via random stacking of hexagonal close-packed planes, lacking any of the face-centered cubic (FCC) component evident in crystals grown in 1 g beyond melting and allowed some time to settle. Gravity also masks 33-539 the natural growth instabilities of the hard sphere crystals which exhibit striking dendritic arms when grown in microgravity. Finally, high volume fraction "glass" samples which fail to crystallize after more than a year in 1 g begin nucleation after several days and fully crystallize in less than 2 weeks on the Space Shuttle.
Document ID
19990009690
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Other
Authors
Zhu, Ji-Xiang
(Princeton Univ. NJ United States)
Chaikin, P. M.
(Princeton Univ. NJ United States)
Li, Min
(Princeton Univ. NJ United States)
Russel, W. B.
(Princeton Univ. NJ United States)
Ottewill, R. H.
(Bristol Univ. United Kingdom)
Rogers, R.
(NASA Lewis Research Center Cleveland, OH United States)
Meyer, W. V.
(NASA Lewis Research Center Cleveland, OH United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 1998
Publication Information
Publication: Second United States Microgravity Laboratory: One Year Report
Volume: 2
Subject Category
Materials Processing
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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