Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Freezing lines of colloidal Yukawa spheres. I. A Rogers-Young integral equation study
Jacek Gapinski1, Gerhard Nägele, Adam Patkowski
1Faculty of Physics, A. Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 85, 61-614 Poznań, Poland. gapinski@amu.edu.pl
Abstract:
Using the Rogers-Young (RY) integral equation scheme for the static structure factor combined with the one-phase Hansen-Verlet (HV) freezing rule, we study the equilibrium structure and two-parameter freezing lines of colloidal particles with Yukawa-type pair interactions representing charge-stabilized silica spheres suspended in dimethylformamide (DMF). Results are presented for a vast range of concentrations, salinities and effective charges covering particles with masked excluded-volume interactions. The freezing lines were obtained for the low-charge and high-charge solutions of the static structure factor, for various two-parameter sets of experimentally accessible system parameters. All RY-HV based freezing lines can be mapped on a universal fluid-solid coexistence line in good agreement with computer simulation predictions. The RY-HV calculations extend the freezing lines obtained in earlier simulations to a broader parameter range. The experimentally observed fluid-bcc-fluid reentrant transition of charged silica spheres in DMF can be explained using the freezing lines obtained in this work.
Related Concept Videos
Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing
First Law: Particles in Two-dimensional Equilibrium
Newton's first law tells us about the...
First Law: Particles in One-dimensional Equilibrium
Molecular and Ionic Solids
Molecular Solids
Molecular crystalline solids, such as ice, sucrose (table sugar), and iodine, are solids that are composed of neutral molecules as their constituent units. These molecules are held together by weak intermolecular forces such as London dispersion forces, dipole-dipole interactions, or hydrogen bonds, which...
Hückel's Rule Diagram of π MOs: Frost Circle
A Frost circle is constructed by drawing a polygon whose number of edges is equal to the number of carbons of the given cyclic system, with one of the vertices pointing down. Then, a circle is drawn enclosing the polygon so that...
Intermolecular Forces in Solutions
When the strengths of the intermolecular forces of attraction between solute and solvent species in a solution are no different than those present in the separated components, the solution is formed with no accompanying energy change. Such a solution is called an ideal solution. A mixture of ideal gases (or gases such as helium and argon,...

