Related papers: Stabilizing the Hexagonal Close Packed Structure o…
We study the phase behavior of hard spheres confined between two parallel hard plates using extensive computer simulations. We determine the full equilibrium phase diagram for arbitrary densities and plate separations from one to five…
A theoretical scheme for the calculation of the full phase diagram (including cloud and shadow curves, binodals and distribution functions of the coexisting phases) for colloid-polymer mixtures with polymer chain length polydispersity and…
We report a numerical calculation of the elastic constants of the fcc and hcp crystal phases of monodisperse hard-sphere colloids. Surprisingly, some of these elastic constants are very different (up to 20%), even though the free energy,…
The phase diagram of colloidal hard superballs, of which the shape interpolates between cubes and octahedra via spheres, is determined by free-energy calculations in Monte Carlo simulations. We discover not only a stable face-centered cubic…
The hard sphere model is known to show a liquid-solid phase transition, with the solid expected to be either face centered cubic or hexagonal close packed. The difference in free energy between the two structures is very small and various…
In experimental systems, colloidal particles are virtually always at least somewhat polydisperse, which can have profound effects on their ability to crystallize. Unfortunately, accurately predicting the effects of polydispersity on phase…
We numerically study structural properties of mechanically stable packings of hard spheres (HS), in a wide range of packing fractions $0.53 \le \phi \le 0.72$. Detailed structural information is obtained from the analysis of orientational…
Theory is presented for the phase stability of mixtures containing nanospheres and non-adsorbing reversible supramolecular polymers. This was made possible by incorporating the depletion thickness and osmotic pressure of reversible…
Colloidal photonic crystals display peculiar optical properties which make them particularly suitable for application in different fields. However, the low packing fraction of the targeted structures usually poses a real challenge in the…
We review recent work on the phase behaviour of binary charged sphere mixtures as a function of particle concentration and composition. Both size ratios and charge ratios are varied over a wide range. By contrast to hard spheres the long…
Confinement can have a dramatic effect on the behavior of all sorts of particulate systems and it therefore is an important phenomenon in many different areas of physics and technology. Here, we investigate the role played by the softness…
The equilibrium phase behaviour of hard spheres with size polydispersity is studied theoretically. We solve numerically the exact phase equilibrium equations that result from accurate free energy expressions for the fluid and solid phases,…
Hard spheres are an important benchmark of our understanding of natural and synthetic systems. In this work, colloidal experiments and Monte Carlo simulations examine the equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium assembly of hard spheres of…
The equilibrium phase behavior of a binary mixture of charged colloids and neutral, non-adsorbing polymers is studied within free-volume theory. A model mixture of charged hard-sphere macroions and ideal, coarse-grained, effective-sphere…
The formation of various bicontinuous phases from binary blends of linear AB diblock copolymers (DBCPs) is studied using the polymeric self-consistent field theory. The theoretical study predicts that the double-diamond and the "plumber's…
We introduce a novel coarse-grained bead-spring model for flexible polymers to systematically examine the effects of an adjusted bonded potential on the formation and stability of structural macrostates in a thermal environment. The density…
Shape anisotropy of colloidal nanoparticles has emerged as an important design variable for engineering assemblies with targeted structure and properties. In particular, a number of polyhedral nanoparticles have been shown to exhibit a rich…
We perform extensive Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the phase behaviour of colloidal suspensions of hard board-like particles (HBPs). While theories restricting particle orientation or ignoring higher ordered phases suggest the…
The phase behaviour of binary blends composed of A$_1$B$_1$ and A$_2$B$_2$ diblock copolymers is systematically studied using the polymeric self-consistent field theory, focusing on the formation and relative stability of various spherical…
The stability of liquid crystal phases in presence of small amount of non-mesogenic impurities is of general interest for a large spectrum of technological applications and in the theories of binary mixtures. Starting from the known phase…