Related papers: Telechelic star polymers as self-assembling units …

Almost all the polymer crystals have several polymorphic modifications. Their structure and existence conditions, as well as transitions between them are not understood even in the case of the 'model' polymer polyethylene (PE). For analysis…

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…

Self-assembly processes provide the means to achieve scalable and versatile metamaterials by "bottom-up" fabrication. Despite their enormous potential, especially as a platform for energy materials, self-assembled metamaterials are often…

Star polymers are within the most topologically entangled macromolecules. For a star to move the current theory is that one arm must retract to the branch point. The probability of this event falls exponentially with molecular weight, and a…

The design of complex materials and the formation of specific patterns often arise from the properties of the individual building blocks. In this respect, colloidal systems offer a unique opportunity because nowadays they can be synthesized…

Self-limiting assembly of particles represents the state-of-the-art controllability in nanomanufacturing processes where the assembly stops at a designated stage1,2, providing a desirable platform for applications requiring delicate…

Spontaneous self-assembly of hard convex polyhedra are known to form orientationally disordered crystalline phases, where particle orientations do not follow the same pattern as the positional arrangement of the crystal. A distinct type of…

We investigate the structure of a dilute mixture of amphiphilic dimers and spherical particles, a model relevant to the problem of encapsulating globular "guest" molecules in a dispersion. Dimers and spheres are taken to be hard particles,…

We investigate the effects of chain flexibility on the self-assembly behavior of symmetric diblock copolymers (BCPs) when they are confined as a thin film between two surfaces. Employing worm-like chain (WLC) self-consistent field theory,…

Self-assembling novel ordered structures with nanoparticles has recently received much attention. Here we use computer simulations to study a two-dimensional model system characterized by a simple isotropic interaction that could be…

Hard-core/soft shell (HCSS) particles have been shown to self-assemble into a remarkably rich variety of structures under compression due to the simple interplay between the hard-core and soft-shoulder length scales in their interactions.…

Effective colloid-colloid interactions can be tailored through the addition of a complex cosolute. Here we investigate the case of a cosolute made by self-assembling patchy particles. Depending on the valence, these particles can form…

Patchy colloids with highly directional interactions are ideal building blocks to control the local arrangements resulting from their spontaneous self-organization. Here we propose their use, combined with substrates and nonequilibrium…

We create a one-dimensional photonic crystal with strong polarization dependence and tunable by an applied electric field. We accomplish this in a planar microcavity by embedding a cholesteric liquid crystal (LC), which spontaneously forms…

We present a theoretical description of a mechanism for self assembly in binary soft nanoparticle systems of the type which were studied experimentally by Talapin et al [1]. We focus on, in particular, the conditions for formation of…

We study the self-assembly of branching-chain networks and crystals in a binary colloidal system with tunable interactions. The particle positions are extracted from microscope images and order parameters are extracted by image processing…

We describe a computational model for studying the complexity of self-assembled structures with active molecular components. Our model captures notions of growth and movement ubiquitous in biological systems. The model is inspired by…

We perform numerical simulations of purely repulsive soft colloidal particles interacting via a generalized elastic potential and constrained to a two-dimensional plane and to the surface of a spherical shell. For the planar case, we…

Understanding the dynamics of soft colloids, such as star polymers, dendrimers, and microgels, is of scientific and practical importance. It is known that the excluded volume effect plays a key role in colloidal dynamics. Here, we propose a…

Simple local interactions can cause primitive building blocks to self-assemble into complex and functional patterns. However, even for a small number of blocks, there exist a vast number of possible configurations that are plausible,…