Related papers: Competing ordered structures formed by particles w…
Inverse patchy colloids are nano- to micro-scale particles with a surface divided into differently charged regions. This class of colloids combines directional, selective bonding with a relatively simple particle design: owing to the…
We propose an optimisation method for the inverse structural design of self-assembly of anisotropic patchy particles. The anisotropic interaction can be expressed by the spherical harmonics of the surface pattern on a patchy particle, and…
We explore the behavior of two-dimensional patchy colloidal particles with 8 or 10 symmetrically arranged patches by employing Monte-Carlo simulations. The particles interact according to an isotropic pair potential that possesses only one…
A toy model of particles packings is presented, which consists in arranging hexagons on a triangular lattice according to local stability rules. The number of stable packings is analytically computed and found to grow exponentially with the…
Many physical systems are well modeled as collections of interacting particles. Nevertheless, a general approach to quantifying the absolute degree of order immediately surrounding a particle has yet to be described. Motivated thus, we…
The organization of nano-particles inside grafted polymer layers is governed by the interplay of polymer-induced entropic interactions and the action of externally applied fields. Earlier work had shown that strong external forces can drive…
A challenge in designing self-assembling building blocks is to ensure the target state is both thermodynamically stable and kinetically accessible. These two objectives are known to be typically in competition, but it is not known how to…
We demonstrate a novel route of spatially organizing the colloid arrangements on the polymer-grafted substrate by use of self-consistent field and density functional theories. We find that grafting of polymers onto a substrate can…
We present a microscopic theory that describes the ordering of two distinct ligands on the surface of a faceted nanoparticle. The theory predicts that when one type of ligand is significantly bulkier than all others, the larger ligands…
Patchy particles is the name given to a large class of systems of mesoscopic particles characterized by a repulsive core and a discrete number of short-range and highly directional interaction sites. Numerical simulations have contributed…
Colloids that attractively bond to only a few neighbors (e.g., patchy particles) can form equilibrium gels with distinctive dynamic properties that are stable in time. Here, we use a coarse-grained model to explore the dynamics of linked…
Spherical particles confined to a sphere surface cannot pack densely into a hexagonal lattice without defects. In this study, we use hard particle Monte Carlo simulations to determine the effects of continuously deformable shape anisotropy…
We present a new numerical scheme to study systems of non-convex, irregular, and punctured particles in an efficient manner. We employ this method to analyze regular packings of odd-shaped bodies, not only from a nanoparticle but also both…
We examine a two-dimensional nonequilibrium lattice model where particles adsorb at empty sites and desorb when the number of neighbouring particles is greater than a given threshold. In a certain range of parameters the model exhibits…
Recently, we proposed a self-propelled particle model with competing alignment interactions: nearby particles tend to align their velocities whereas they anti-align their direction of motion with particles which are further away [R.…
Experiments have reached a monumental capacity for designing and synthesizing microscopic particles for self-assembly, making it possible to precisely control particle concentrations, shapes, and interactions. However, more physical insight…
The ordering of particles in the drying process of a colloidal suspension is crucial in determining the properties of the resulting film. For example, microscopic inhomogeneities can lead to the formation of cracks and defects that can…
We critically discuss the application of the Wertheim's theory to classes of complex associating fluids that can be today engineered in the laboratory as patchy colloids and to the prediction of their peculiar gas-liquid phase diagrams. Our…
We have studied systematically the influence of particle-hole symmetric and asymmetric kinetic terms on the ordered phases that we may observe competing or coexisting in a tetragonal system. We show that there are precise patterns of…
We report on the self-assembly of inverse patchy colloids (IPC) using Monte Carlo simulations in two-dimensions. The IPC model considered in this work corresponds to either bipolar colloids or colloids decorated with complementary DNA on…