* Astronomy

Members Login

Post Info

TOPIC: colloidal crystals

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Dec 23 21:27 2010

colloidal crystals	Permalink

Physicists grow pleats in two-dimensional curved spaces A design feature well known in skirts and trousers has now been identified in curved, two-dimensional crystals. As University of Chicago physicist William Irvine and his colleagues report in this week's Nature, crystalline arrays of microscopic particles grown on a negatively curved surface can develop linear defects analogous to fabric pleats. The results will facilitate a more general exploration of defects in curved spaces, including potential applications in engineered materials. The problem of tiling a curved surface with hexagons is familiar from soccer balls and geodesic domes, in which pentagons are added to accommodate the spherical (positive) curvature. Interacting particles that form hexagonal patterns on a plane - known as 'colloidal crystals' - adopt these and other types of topological defects when grown on a sphere. Read more __________________

Page 1 of 1 sorted by

Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse