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Updated: Jul 29, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Entropically driven colloidal crystallization on patterned surfaces
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6396, USA.
Abstract:
We investigate the self-assembly of colloidal spheres on periodically patterned templates. The surface potentials and the surface phases are induced entropically by the presence of dissolved, nonadsorbing polymers. A rich variety of two-dimensional fluidlike and solidlike phases was observed to form on template potentials with both one- and two-dimensional symmetry. The same methodology was then used to nucleate an oriented single fcc crystal more than 30 layers thick. The general approach provides a new route for directed self-assembly of novel mesoscopic structures.
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