Related papers: Self-assembling multiblock amphiphiles: Molecular …
Because of its promising contribution to the bottom-up approach for nanofabrication of complex molecular architectures, self-organization is widely studied nowadays. Numerous studies have tackled supramolecular chirality or low-dimensional…
Soft particles such as microgels and core-shell particles can undergo significant and anisotropic deformations when adsorbed to a liquid interface. This, in turn, leads to a complex phase behavior upon compression. Here we develop a…
Biomolecules composed of a limited set of chemical building blocks can co-localize into distinct, spatially segregated compartments known as biomolecular condensates. While many condensates are known to form spontaneously via phase…
An optimal control strategy is developed to construct nanostructures of desired geometry along line segments by means of directed self-assembly of charged particles. Such a control strategy determines the electric potentials of a set of…
In order to understand the nuclei which develop during the course of protein folding and unfolding, we examine phase segregation of a single heteropolymer chain which occurs in equilibrium. These segregated conformations are characterized…
Motivated by the problem of domain formation in chromosomes, we studied a co--polymer model where only a subset of the monomers feel attractive interactions. These monomers are displaced randomly from a regularly-spaced pattern, thus…
The possibility of prescribing local interactions between nano- and microscopic components that direct them to assemble in a predictable fashion is a central goal of nanotechnology research. In this article we advance a new paradigm in…
During the last 3 years, our group has investigated extensively the complexation mechanism between neutral-polyelectrolyte block copolymers with oppositely charged species. These species are surfactant micelles, multivalent counterions and…
We study both experimentally and theoretically the self-assembly of binary block copolymers in dilute solution, where self-assembly is triggered by changing the solvent from the common good solvent THF to the selective solvent water, and…
Just like atoms combine into molecules, colloids can self-organize into predetermined structures according to a set of design principles. Controlling valence -- the number of inter-particle bonds -- is a prerequisite for the assembly of…
The field of synthetic active matter has, thus far, been led by efforts to create point-like, isolated (yet interacting) self-propelled objects (\emph{e.g.} colloids, droplets, microrobots) and understanding their collective dynamics. The…
Self-assembling, semi-flexible polymers are ubiquitous in biology and technology. However, there remain conflicting accounts of the equilibrium kinetics for such an important system. Here, by focusing on a dynamical description of a minimal…
The design space for a self-assembled multicomponent objects ranges from a solution in which every building block is unique to one with the minimum number of distinct building blocks that unambiguously define the target structure. Using a…
Massively-parallel molecular dynamics simulation is applied to systems containing electrolytes, vapour-liquid interfaces, and biomolecules in contact with water-oil interfaces. Novel molecular models of alkali halide salts are presented and…
Self-assembly is a ubiquitous process in synthetic and biological systems, broadly defined as the spontaneous organization of multiple subunits (e.g. macromolecules, particles) into ordered multi-unit structures. The vast majority of…
Conventional micelles, composed of simple amphiphiles, exhibit only a few standard morphologies, each characterized by its mean surface curvature set by the amphiphiles. Here we demonstrate a rational design scheme to construct micelles of…
In living cells, proteins self-assemble into large functional structures based on specific interactions between molecularly complex patches. Due to this complexity, protein self-assembly results from a competition between a large number of…
Macromolecules can form regular structures on inert surfaces. We have developed a combined empirical and modeling approach to derive the bonding. From experimental scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of structures formed on Au(111)…
Machine learning techniques including neural networks are popular tools for materials and chemical scientists with applications that may provide viable alternative methods in the analysis of structure and energetics of systems ranging from…
Aggregation of amphiphiles through the action of hydrophobic interactions is a common feature in soft condensed matter systems and is of particular importance in the context of biophysics as it underlies both the generation of functional…