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The interfacial free energy is a central quantity in crystallization from themeta-stable melt. In suspensions of charged colloidal spheres, nucleation andgrowth kinetics can be accurately measured from optical experiments. Inprevious work, from this data effective non-equilibrium values for theinterfacial free energy between the emerging bcc-nuclei and the adjacent meltin dependence on the chemical potential difference between melt phase andcrystal phase were derived using classical nucleation theory. A strictly linearincrease of the interfacial free energy was observed as a function of increasedmeta-stability. Here, we further analyze this data for five aqueous suspensionsof charged spheres and one binary mixture. We utilize a simple extrapolationscheme and interpret our findings in view of Turnbull's empirical rule. Ourfirst estimates for the reduced interfacial free energy, $\sigma_{0,bcc}$,between coexisting equilibrium uid and bcc-crystal phases are on the order of afew $k_BT$. Their values are not correlated to any of the electrostaticinteraction parameters but rather show a systematic decrease with increasingsize polydispersity and a lower value for the mixture as compared to the purecomponents. At the same time, $\sigma_0$ also shows an approximately linearcorrelation to the entropy of freezing. The equilibrium interfacial free energyof strictly monodisperse charged spheres may therefore be still greater.

Equilibrium Fluid-Crystal Interfacial Free Energy of Bcc-Crystallizing Aqueous Suspensions of Polydisperse Charged Spheres