Related papers: From Compact to Open Clusters in Systems with Comp…
Fluids with competing short-range attractions and long-range repulsions mimic dispersions of charge-stabilized colloids that can display equilibrium structures with intermediate range order (IRO), including particle clusters. Using…
We study metastable clusters in a colloidal system with competing interactions. A short-ranged polymer-induced attraction drives clustering, while a weak, long-ranged electrostatic repulsion prevents extensive aggregation. We compare…
Systems of self-propelled particles are known for their tendency to aggregate and to display swarm behavior. We investigate two model systems, self-propelled rods interacting via volume exclusion, and sinusoidally-beating flagella embedded…
Many fascinating phenomena such as large-scale collective flows, enhanced fluid mixing and pattern formation have been observed in so-called active fluids, which are composed of particles that can absorb energy and dissipate it into the…
Building structures with hierarchical order through the self-assembly of smaller blocks is not only a prerogative of nature, but also a strategy to design artificial materials with tailored functions. We explore in simulation the…
The interaction of amphiphilic polymers with small colloids, capable to reversibly stick onto the chains, is studied. Adhesive small colloids in solution are able to dynamically bind two polymer segments. This association leads to…
We discuss a simple model of particles hopping in one dimension with attractive interactions. Taking a hydrodynamic limit in which the interaction strength increases with the system size, we observe the formation of multiple clusters of…
Systems in which a short-ranged attraction and long-ranged repulsion compete are intrinsically frustrated, leading their structure and dynamics to be dominated either by mesoscopic order or by metastable disorder. Here we report the latter…
Active matter deals with systems whose particles consume energy at the individual level in order to move. To unravel features such as the emergence of collective structures several models have been suggested, such as the on-lattice model of…
Adsorption at an attractive surface in a system with particles self-assembling into small clusters is studied by Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. We assume Lennard-Jones plus repulsive Yukawa tail interactions, and focus on small…
We systematically investigate the self-assembly of anisotropic cone-shaped particles decorated by ring-like attractive patches. We demonstrate that the self-assembled clusters, which arise due to the conical particle's anisotropic shape…
We study the effects of the optical binding force on wavelength sized colloidal particles free to move in a counter-propagating beam. This work is motivated by the concept of using optical binding to direct the assembly of large numbers of…
In simple colloidal suspensions, clusters are various multimers that result from colloid self-association and exist in equilibrium with monomers.There are two types of potentials that are known to produce clusters: a) potentials that result…
A binary mixture of particles interacting with spherically-symmetric potentials leading to microsegregation is studied by theory and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We consider spherical particles with equal diameters and volume…
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…
We study gelation in suspensions of model colloidal particles with short-ranged attractive and long-ranged repulsive interactions by means of three-dimensional fluorescence confocal microscopy. At low packing fractions, particles form…
Self-diffusiophoretic particles exploit local concentration gradients of a solute species in order to self-propel at the micron scale. While an isolated chemically- and geometrically-isotropic particle cannot swim, we show that it can…
How frictional effects emerge at the microscopic level in particulate materials remains a challenging question, particularly in systems subject to thermal fluctuations due to the transient nature of interparticle contacts. Here, we directly…
Aggregation processes in systems of planar macromolecules and colloids drive a broad range of phenomena in natural systems and soft materials. Depending on chemical architecture, intermolecular interactions in these systems may favor…
We investigate the formation of cluster crystals with multiply occupied lattice sites on a spherical surface in systems of ultra-soft particles interacting via repulsive, bounded pair potentials. Not all interactions of this kind lead to…