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Abstract:
Monte Carlo simulations, fully constrained by experimental parameters, are found to agree well with a measured phase diagram of aqueous dispersions of nanoparticles with a moderate size polydispersity over a broad range of salt concentrations, cs, and volume fractions, phi. Upon increasing phi, the colloids freeze first into coexisting compact solids then into a body centered cubic phase (bcc) before they melt into a glass forming liquid. The surprising stability of the bcc solid at high phi and cs is explained by the interaction (charge) polydispersity and vibrational entropy.
