Non-equilibrium steady-state colloidal assembly dynamics.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Coughlan, Anna C. H.; Torres-Díaz, Isaac; Zhang, Jianli; Bevan, Michael A.
- Source
- Journal of Chemical Physics. 5/28/2019, Vol. 150 Issue 20, pN.PAG-N.PAG. 14p. 7 Graphs.
- Subject
- *DYNAMICS
*COLLOIDAL crystals
*LANGEVIN equations
*FOKKER-Planck equation
*PARTICLE tracks (Nuclear physics)
- Language
- ISSN
- 0021-9606
Simulations and experiments are reported for nonequilibrium steady-state assembly of small colloidal crystal clusters in rotating magnetic fields vs frequency and amplitude. High-dimensional trajectories of particle coordinates from image analysis of experiments and from Stokesian Dynamic computer simulations are fit to low-dimensional reaction coordinate based Fokker-Planck and Langevin equations. The coefficients of these equations are effective energy and diffusivity landscapes that capture configuration-dependent energy and friction for nonequilibrium steady-state dynamics. Two reaction coordinates that capture condensation and anisotropy of dipolar chains folding into crystals are sufficient to capture high-dimensional experimental and simulated dynamics in terms of first passage time distributions. Our findings illustrate how field-mediated nonequilibrium steady-state colloidal assembly dynamics can be modeled to interpret and design pathways toward target microstructures and morphologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]