Assembly and Phase Transitions within Colloidal Crystals

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent progress in understanding phase transitions in colloidal crystals, emphasizing advances in crystallization, melting, and solid-solid transitions using tunable particles as model systems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent experimental and simulation studies on phase transitions in colloidal crystals with various particle types.

Findings

Advances in colloid fabrication enable detailed studies of phase behavior.

Imaging techniques allow direct observation of particle motions during transitions.

Challenges remain in understanding kinetic and nonequilibrium processes.

Abstract

Micrometre sized colloidal particles can be viewed as large atoms with tailorable size, shape and interactions. These building blocks can assemble into extremely rich structures and phases, in which the thermal motions of particles can be directly imaged and tracked using optical microscopy. Hence, colloidal particles are excellent model systems for studying phase transitions, especially for poorly understood kinetic and nonequilibrium microscale processes. Advances in colloid fabrication, assembly and computer simulations have opened up numerous possibilities for such research. In this Review, we describe recent progress in the study of colloidal crystals composed of tunable isotropic spheres, anisotropic particles and active particles. We focus on advances in crystallization, melting and solid solid transitions, and highlight challenges and future perspectives in phase transition studies within colloidal crystals.