Frustrated rotator crystals and glasses of Brownian pentagons.
Two-dimensional Brownian dispersions of microscale pentagonal platelets exhibit rich structural and dynamical behavior as the particle area fraction, phi(A), is increased. As phi(A) is raised above 0.66, a rotator crystal forms, and while in an equilateral hexagonal lattice, pentagons still explore all angles as they rotationally diffuse. At larger phi(A), the interference of the tips of neighboring pentagons causes rotational dynamical heterogeneity; particle rotations become nonergodic, the hallmark of a frustrated rotator crystal. Upon further compression, the quenched-in rotational disorder and inability of pentagons to fully tile a flat plane creates spatial defects, precluding access to a dense striped crystalline packing.
Zhao
Kun
K
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
Mason
Thomas G
TG
D003460:Crystallization; D005898:Glass / Q000737:chemistry*; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D012399:Rotation