We just published on the Journal of Chemical Physics the experimental and computer simulation work of a Ioatzin Rios de Anda (PhD student in the Royall group) on kinetically arrested crystalline phases in colloidal binary mixtures.
Despite slightly different conditions (presence/absence of confinement or polydispersity in the particle sizes) the experiments and simulations match in the fundamental message of the work: when we have two species rather different in sizes, crystallisation of the bigger species can occur before the reordering of the smaller species, forming long-lived kinetically arrested structures (interstitial solid solutions), characterised by a high density of imperfections and vacancies. This shows how challenging the formation of a well ordered binary crystal is and, on the other hand, how they can potentially be considered for the realisation of partially ordered porous matrices.
Full reference:
Rios de Anda, I., Turci, F., Sear, R., & Royall, P. Journal of Chemical Physics, 147, 124504 (2017).
Francesco Turci 