Langmuir, Vol.33, No.40, 10543-10549, 2017
Heterogeneous Nucleation of Colloidal Crystals on a Glass Substrate with Depletion Attraction
The heterogeneous nucleation of colloidal crystals with attractive interactions has been investigated via in situ observations. We have found two types of nucleation processes: a cluster that overcomes the critical size for nucleation with a monolayer, and a method that occurs with two layers. The Gibbs free energy changes (Delta G) for these two types of nucleation processes are evaluated by taking into account the effect of various interfacial energies. In contrast to homogeneous nucleation, the change in interfacial free energy, Delta sigma, is generated for colloidal nucleation on a foreign substrate such as a cover glass in the present study. The Delta sigma and step free energy of the first layer, gamma(1), are obtained experimentally based on the equation deduced from classical nucleation theory (CNT). It is concluded that the Delta G of q-2D nuclei is smaller than of monolayer nuclei, provided that the same number of particles are used, which explains the experimental result that the critical size in q-2D nuclei is smaller than that in monolayer nuclei.