Inverse Solidification Induced by Active Janus Particles

TL;DR

This paper reports a counter-intuitive phenomenon where chemically active Janus particles induce solidification in a colloidal system, driven by internal micro-blasts from photochemical activity, challenging classical melting theories.

Contribution

It introduces a novel non-equilibrium solidification mechanism caused by active defects in colloids, expanding understanding of phase transitions far from equilibrium.

Findings

Crystallization occurs at a critical level of defect-induced fluctuations.

Solidification is driven by internal photochemical activity of Janus particles.

The resulting solid persists under continuous energy supply from ion flow.

Abstract

Crystals melt when thermal excitations or the concentration of defects in the lattice is sufficiently high. Upon melting, the crystalline long-range order vanishes, turning the solid to a fluid. In contrast to this classical scenario of solid melting, here we demonstrate a counter-intuitive behavior of the occurrence of crystalline long-range order in an initially disordered matrix. This unusual solidification is demonstrated in a system of passive colloidal particles accommodating chemically active defects -- photocatalytic Janus particles. The observed crystallization occurs when the amount of active-defect-induced fluctuations (which is the measure of the effective temperature) reaches critical value. The driving mechanism behind this unusual behavior is purely internal and resembles a blast-induced solidification. Here the role of "internal micro-blasts" is played by the photochemical activity of defects residing in the colloidal matrix. The defect-induced solidification occurs under non-equilibrium conditions: the resulting solid exists as long as a constant supply of energy in the form of ion flow is provided by the catalytic photochemical reaction at the surface of active Janus particle defects. Our findings could be useful for understanding of the phase transitions of matter under extreme conditions far from thermodynamic equilibrium.