Activation energy of kink incorporation of particles into colloidal crystals with attractive interactions

Abstract

The kink incorporation and diffusion of particles on the growth interface of colloidal crystals with attractive interactions between particles are important elementary processes. We have successfully estimated the activation energy of kink incorporation, ε_kink, and vibrational frequency, ν, of silica particles on the growth interface using two fundamentally different approaches. One was the use of the Arrhenius plot of step velocities, V_step, at five temperatures. The other was the use of ν measured by the direct observation of particle movements with a high-speed camera. Although ν and ε_kink took similar values for both approaches, the errors of ν and ε_kink are smaller for the direct observation case than those obtained by the Arrhenius plot. This study is the first to estimate quantitively the activation energy of kink incorporation and the vibrational frequency of particles on the growth interface of a colloidal crystal. These findings would contribute significantly to the understanding of crystal growth mechanisms.