Colloidal Crystal: emergence of long range order from colloidal fluid

Although emergence, or spontaneous symmetry breaking, has been a topic of discussion in physics for decades, they have not entered the set of terminologies for materials scientists, although many phenomena in materials science are of the nature of emergence, especially soft materials. In a typical soft material, colloidal suspension system, a long range order can emerge due to the interaction of a large number of particles. This essay will first introduce interparticle interactions in colloidal systems, and then proceed to discuss the emergence of order, colloidal crystals, and finally provide an example of applications of colloidal crystals in light of conventional molecular crystals. 1