Gas-Liquid Transition in a Two-Dimensional System of Millimeter-Sized Like-Charged Metal Balls

B. V. R. Tata; P. V. Rajamani; J. Chakrabarti; Alex Nikolov; D. T. Wasan

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.3626

Gas-Liquid Transition in a Two-Dimensional System of Millimeter-Sized Like-Charged Metal Balls

B. V. R. Tata, P. V. Rajamani, J. Chakrabarti, Alex Nikolov, and D. T. Wasan

Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3626 – Published 17 April 2000

Abstract

Metal balls with a diameter of 1.59 mm, gently rubbed against a dielectric surface using a shaker, are seen to spontaneously exhibit a two-dimensional liquidlike order with macroscopic dimensions, viz., interball distances of several millimeters. This liquidlike order transforms to a gaslike order through coexistence upon decreasing the area fraction of the balls. The measured pair interaction of like-charged balls surprisingly exhibits a long-range attractive term analogous to that in charged colloids.

Received 13 July 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.3626

Authors & Affiliations

B. V. R. Tata^1,2, P. V. Rajamani^1,2, J. Chakrabarti^1,2, Alex Nikolov¹, and D. T. Wasan^1,*

¹Department of Chemical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois 60616
²Materials Science Division, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603 102, Tamil Nadu, India