Intermediate-range order governs dynamics in dense colloidal liquids.

ABSTRACT: The conventional wisdom is that liquids are completely disordered and lack nontrivial structure beyond nearest-neighbor distances. Recent observations have upended this view and demonstrated that the microstructure in liquids is surprisingly rich and plays a critical role in numerous physical, biological, and industrial processes. However, approaches to uncover this structure are either system-specific or yield results that are not physically intuitive. Here, through single-particle resolved three-dimensional confocal microscope imaging and the use of a recently introduced four-point correlation function, we show that bidisperse colloidal liquids have a highly nontrivial structure comprising alternating layers with icosahedral and dodecahedral order, which extends well beyond nearest-neigh

SUBMITTER: Singh N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10175804 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature