Kikuchi‐Kossel diffraction line analysis on crystallization in salt‐free aqueous colloidal suspensions

The Kikuchi-Kossel laser diffraction analysis proved that the crystallization in salt-free aqueous suspensions of highly-charged latex particles proceeds by way of the following multi-phase transitions: two-dimensional hcp structure --> random layer structure --> layer structure with one sliding degree of freedom --> stacking disorder structure --> stacking structure with multi-variant periodicity --> fee structure with (I 11) twin --> normal fee structure. For less concentrated suspensions (<2 vol%), the phase transition progresses further from the normal fee structure to the normal bee structure via the bee twin structure. In this note, we report results of the Kikuchi-Kossel line analysis on the newly discovered phase transitions at an intermediate stage from the stacking structure with multi-variant periodicity to the fee (twin) structures.