Colloidal crystals

(chemistry) A periodic array of suspended colloidal particles that can arise spontaneously in a monodisperse colloidal system under appropriate conditions.

Periodic arrays of suspended colloidal particles. Common colloidal suspensions (colloids) such as milk, blood, or latex are polydisperse; that is, the suspended particles have a distribution of sizes and shapes. However, suspensions of particles of identical size, shape, and interaction, the so-called monodisperse colloids, do occur. In such suspensions, a new phenomenon that is not found in polydisperse systems, colloidal crystallization, appears: under appropriate conditions, the particles can spontaneously arrange themselves into spatially periodic structures. This ordering is analogous to that of identical atoms or molecules into periodic arrays to form atomic or molecular crystals. However, colloidal crystals are distinguished from molecular crystals, such as those formed by very large protein molecules, in that the individual particles do not have precisely identical internal atomic or molecular arrangements. On the other hand, they are distinguished from periodic stackings of macroscopic objects like cannonballs in that the periodic ordering is spontaneously adopted by the system through the thermal agitation (brownian motion) of the particles. These conditions limit the sizes of particles which can form colloidal crystals to the range from about 0.01 to about 5 micrometers.

The most spectacular evidence for colloidal crystallization is the existence of naturally occurring opals. The ideal opal structure is a periodic close-packed three-dimensional array of silica microspheres with hydrated silica filling the spaces not occupied by particles. Opals are the fossilized remains of an earlier colloidal crystal suspension. Another important class of naturally occurring colloidal crystals are found in concentrated suspensions of nearly spherical virus particles, such as Tipula iridescent virus and tomato bushy stunt virus. Colloidal crystals can also be made from the synthetic monodisperse colloids, suspensions of plastic (organic polymer) microspheres. Such suspensions have become important systems for the study of colloidal crystals, by virtue of the controllability of the particle size and interaction. See also Colloid.