#colloidal crystals

A new technique that produces 3D models of individual crystals has opened a window for scientists to see the subtle deviations that emerge in their otherwise perfect patterns. Researchers from New York University (NYU) went back to the drawing board on how to look deep inside solids made of repeating units, and determine how they grow. With a short wavelength roughly the same size as many of the repeating units that make up crystals, X-rays have long allowed scientists to infer how a crystal's components fit together by measuring the angle at which the rays are diffracted.

Scientists discover 'electron equivalents' in colloidal systems

Atoms have a positively charged center surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged particles. This type of arrangement, it turns out, can also occur at a more macroscopic level, giving new insights into the nature of how materials form and interact.

In a new study from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have examined the internal structure of a material called a colloidal crystal, which consists of a highly ordered array of larger and smaller particlesinterspersed in regular arrangements. A greater knowledge of how colloidal crystals are structured and behave could help scientists determine the applications to which they are best suited, like photonics.

In pioneering research outlined in a recent issue of Science, scientists tethered smaller particles to larger ones using DNA, allowing them to determine how the smaller particles filled in the regions surrounding the larger ones. When using particles as small as 1.4 nanometers—extremely small for colloidal particles—scientists observed an exciting effect: The small particles roamed around regularly ordered larger particles instead of remaining locked in an ordered fashion.

Liquid Contra Luz Opal

World's first samples of homogeneously crystallized synthetic impregnated opals

“Based on research and various space experiments performed under microgravity, these opals are the world's first samples of homogeneously crystallized synthetic opals, also known as colloidal or photonic crystals”