Phase separation on the sphere: Patchy particles and self-assembly
Soft Condensed Matter
2016-07-13 v1
Abstract
Motivated by observations of heterogeneous domain structure on the surface of cells, we consider a minimal model to describe the dynamics of phase separation on the surface of a spherical particle. Finite-size effects on the curved particle surface lead to the formation of long-lived, metastable states for which the density is distributed in patches over the particle surface. We study the time evolution and stability of these states as a function of both the particle size and the thermodynamic parameters. Finally, by connecting our findings with studies of patchy particles, we consider the implications for self-assembly in many-particle systems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1607.03359,
title = {Phase separation on the sphere: Patchy particles and self-assembly},
author = {Matthias C. Bott and Joseph M. Brader},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.03359},
year = {2016}
}