Related papers: Comparing open and closed molecular self-assembly

Mesoscale behavior of polymers is frequently described by universal laws. This physical property motivates us to propose a new modeling concept, grouping polymers into classes with a common long-wavelength representation. In the same class…

Motivated by recent experimental findings in chemical synthesis of colloidal particles, we draw an analogy between self-assembly processes occurring in biological systems (e.g. protein folding) and a new exciting possibility in the field of…

We report on spontaneous rotational symmetry breaking in a minimal model of complex macromolecules with branches and cycles. The transition takes place as the strength of the self-repulsion is increased. At the transition point, the density…

Semiflexible polymers are ubiquitous in natural and artificial systems, where their intermediate rigidity gives rise to rich structural and dynamical behavior. Confinement plays a central role in these behaviors, as spatial restrictions can…

We consider a model of colloidal spherical particles carrying a permanent dipole moment which is laterally shifted out of the particles' geometrical centres, i.e. the dipole vector is oriented perpendicular to the radius vector of the…

Adsorption on a boundary line confining a monolayer of particles self-assembling into clusters is studied by MC simulations. We focus on a system of particles interacting via competing interaction potential in which effectively short-range…

The onset of self-assembly in a dilute aqueous solution containing a flexible polymer and surfactant is theoretically studied. Focusing on the effect of the surfactant on polymer conformation and using a conjecture of partial collapse of…

Random heteropolymers do not display the typical equilibrium properties of globular proteins, but are the starting point to understand the physics of proteins and, in particular, to describe their non-native states. So far, they have been…

Self-assembly is a key process in living systems - from the microscopic biological level (e.g. assembly of proteins into fibrils within biomolecular condensates in a human cell) through to the macroscopic societal level (e.g. assembly of…

In exchange processes clusters composed of elementary building blocks, monomers, undergo binary exchange in which a monomer is transferred from one cluster to another. In assortative exchange only clusters with comparable masses participate…

The use of reduced models for investigating the self-assembly dynamics underlying protein shell formation in spherical viruses is described. The spontaneous self-assembly of these polyhedral, supramolecular structures, in which icosahedral…

At low temperatures, colloidal particles with short-range attractive and long-range repulsive interactions can form various periodic microphases in bulk.In this paper, we investigate the self-assembly behaviour of colloids with competing…

We have formulated a theory of self-assembly based on the notion of local gauge invariance at the mesoscale. Local gauge invariance at the mesoscale generates the required long- range entropic forces responsible for self-assembly in binary…

Self-assembly at submicroscopic scales is an important but little understood phenomenon. A prominent example is virus capsid growth, whose underlying behavior can be modeled using simple particles that assemble into polyhedral shells.…

Highly symmetric nano-shells are found in many biological systems, such as clathrin cages and viral shells. Several studies have shown that symmetric shells appear in nature as a result of the free energy minimization of a generic…

Flocculation is the process whereby particles (i.e., flocs) in suspension reversibly combine and separate. The process is widespread in soft matter and aerosol physics as well as environmental science and engineering. We consider a general…

Motivated by the idea of using simple macroscopic examples to illustrate the physics of complex systems, we modify a historic experimental setup in which interacting floating magnets spontaneously self-assemble into ordered clusters. By…

We analyze systems of clusters and interacting upon colliding---a collision between two clusters may lead to merging or fragmentation---and we also investigate the influence of additional spontaneous fragmentation events. We consider both…

The impact of confinement on self-assembly of particles interacting with short-range attraction and long-range repulsion (SALR) potential is studied for thermodynamic states corresponding to local ordering of clusters or layers in the bulk.…

The effect of space distribution of randomly-placed particles in a representative composite volume on the thermoelastic effective properties and local stress and strain distribution is analyzed. Quantitative assessment is performed using…