Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Experimental Verification of Morphological Instability in Freezing Aqueous Colloidal Suspensions

2008; American Physical Society; Volume: 100; Issue: 23 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.100.238301

1092-0145

Stephen Peppin, J. S. Wettlaufer, M. Grae Worster,

Material Dynamics and Properties

We describe an experimental test of a new theory of the unidirectional freezing of aqueous colloidal suspensions. At low freezing speeds a planar ice lens completely rejects the particles, forming a steady-state compacted boundary layer in the liquid region. At higher speeds the planar interface becomes thermodynamically unstable and breaks down geometrically to trap bulk regions of colloid within. The theoretical stability threshold is determined experimentally, thereby demonstrating that colloidal suspensions can be treated analogously to atomic or molecular alloys.