Flow Induced Crystallization of Colloidal Dispersion Available to Purchase

In this study, we have examined a crystallization effect of colloidal dispersion induced by the various elongational flows. Extremely strong electrostatic repulsion makes a crystal structure called ‘colloid crystal’. A colloid crystal has hundreds of nano-meters in grating scale and it reflects the visible light due to the Bragg diffraction. It has the potential to become different photonic devices such as an inexpensive photonic device and a planar laser source, but it requires the evolution of the process of making a single-crystal with external stimulus. The methods using flow operation described in this study are expected to the crystallization action of a colloidal dispersion. In the experiment, 2 types of the flow have been examined. The flows have a contraction or an expansion part between two parallel plates separated by 0.1 mm gap and it cause deformations of a contraction or an extension for the colloid. We have evaluated the crystallization effects by a spectroscopic observation of visible-lights reflection on the flow region. As a result, while expansion flows have no crystallization effect, contraction flows have shown it.