Experimental modelling of single-particle dynamic processes in crystallization by controlled colloidal assembly.

In the last few decades, the controlled colloidal assembly was adopted as a new modelling technology for the study of the crystallization mechanism. In colloidal systems, the movement of particles is slow enough to follow and the particle dynamics can be monitored at the single-particle level using normal optical microscopes. So far, the studies of colloidal crystallization have produced a number of insights, which have significantly improved our understanding of crystallization. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in understanding the mechanism of crystallization, which were achieved using colloidal model systems, i.e., the kinetics of nucleation, growth and defect formation. Such model systems allow us to not only visualize some "atomic" details of nucleation and surface processes of crystallization, but also quantify previous models to such an extent that has never been achieved before by other approaches. In the case of nucleation, the quantitative observation of the kinetic process was made at the single-particle level; the results include the ideal case and the deviations from classical theories. The deviations include multi-step crystallization, supersaturation-driven structural mismatch nucleation, defect creation and migration kinetics, surface roughening, etc. It can be foreseen that this approach will become a powerful tool to study the fundamental process of crystallization and other phase transitions.