Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 34: Colloids and Complex Liquids II

CPP 34.1: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 15:00–15:30, C 130

Colloidal quasicrystals: from their discovery to photonic applications — •Stephan Förster¹, Alexander Exner¹, Sabine Rosenfeldt¹, Jan Perlich², and Peter Lindner³ — ¹Physikalische Chemie I, Universität Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany — ²HASYLAB/DESY, 22607 Hamburg, Germany — ³Institut Laue Langevin, 38042 Grenoble, France

Micelles are the simplest example of self-assembly found in nature. As many other colloids, they can self-assemble in aqueous solution to form ordered periodic structures. These structures so far all exhibited classical crystallographic symmetries. Using small-angle neutron and x-ray diffraction, for the first time quasi-crystalline micellar phases were observed exhibiting 12-fold and 18-fold diffraction symmetry. Colloidal water-based quasicrystals are physically and chemically very simple systems. This discovery is of particular importance, as it opens a new versatile route to quasicrystalline photonic band gap materials via water-based colloidal self-assembly techniques.