Binodal Colloidal Aggregation Test - 4

The goal of the BCAT investigations is to further investigate critical, fundamental problems in colloid science and evolve the field of ‘colloid engineering’, which creates materials with novel properties using colloidal particles as precursors. The BCAT-4 investigation had two primary objectives corresponding to specific samples: Critical Point (BCAT-3-4-CP): Depending on their relative distances and energies with respect one another, atoms and molecules organize themselves to form gases, liquids, or solids. By varying the concentrations of the microscale spheres, this experiment studied the critical point of these systems where gases and liquids no longer exist as separate entities and a new state of matter forms when one reaches a critical point. Polydispersion (BCAT-4-Poly): BCAT-4-Poly will use model hard-spheres (suspended in a liquid that makes them transparent) to explore pure and seeded colloidal crystal nucleation and the effects of polydispersity, providing insight into how to understand and control the processes used by nature to bring order out of disorder.