Phase behaviour of binary mixtures of colloidal charged spheres

As a step towards the modelling of binary metal alloys we here report on the shape of the phase boundary of two deionized charged sphere colloidal suspensions as a function of mixing ratio and particle density. Their size ratios are r=0.68 and r=0.56. Both aqueous suspensions of polystyrene copolymer spheres crystallize in a body-centred cubic structure. Interesting differences in the shape of the phase boundary are observed. In the first case a peaked increase of crystal stability was observed for a mixing ratio of p = 0.2-0.3, which gives the fraction of small spheres. Also in the second case the stability of the crystalline phase is larger than expected for an ideal solid solution but over a more extended range of small p. In addition at p = 0.7-0.8 we find a pronounced suppression of crystallization and furthermore some indications of a precipitation of one species at p = 0.9. While the first phase diagram resembles that of a solid solution with possibly the onset of compound formation, the second more resembles a eutectic. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.