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Published on: May 20, 2014
Colloidal cluster crystallization dynamics
Daniel J Beltran-Villegas1, Ray M Sehgal, Dimitrios Maroudas
1Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 USA.
Abstract:
The crystallization dynamics of a colloidal cluster is modeled using a low-dimensional Smoluchowski equation. Diffusion mapping shows that two order parameters are required to describe the dynamics. Using order parameters as metrics for condensation and crystallinity, free energy, and diffusivity landscapes are extracted from brownian dynamics simulations using bayesian inference. Free energy landscapes are validated against Monte Carlo simulations, and mean first-passage times are validated against dynamic simulations. The resulting model enables a low-dimensional description of colloidal crystallization dynamics.
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