Related papers: Impact of Rigidity on Molecular Self-Assembly
Extreme deformation of soft matter is central to our understanding of the effects of shock, fracture, and phase change in a variety of systems. Yet, despite, the increasing interest in this area, far-from-equilibrium behaviours of soft…
Self-assembly in the laboratory can now yield `information-rich' nanostructures in which each component is of a distinct type and has a defined spatial position. Ensuring the thermodynamic stability of such structures requires…
Isotropic pairwise interactions that promote the self assembly of complex particle morphologies have been discovered by inverse design strategies derived from the molecular coarse-graining literature. While such approaches provide an avenue…
High-entropy order-disorder phase transitions can be used for efficient and eco-friendly barocaloric solid-state cooling. Here the barocaloric effect is reported in an archetypal plastic crystal, adamantane. Adamantane has a colossal…
We propose an approach that links density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to study fluid behavior in nanopores in contact with bulk (macropores). It consists of two principal steps. First, the theoretical…
While most of the studies on molecular machines have been performed in solution, interfacing these supramolecular systems with solid-state nanostructures and materials is very important in view of their utilization in sensing components…
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-assembly is traditionally described as the process through which an initially disordered system relaxes towards an equilibrium ordered phase only driven by local interactions between its building blocks. However, This definition is too…
Nonlinear plastic modes (NPMs) are collective displacements that are indicative of imminent plastic instabilities in elastic solids. In this work we formulate the atomistic theory that describes the reversible evolution of NPMs and their…
We examine the impact of quantum confinement on the interaction potential between two charges in two-dimensional semiconductor nanosheets in solution. The resulting effective potential depends on two length scales, namely the thickness $d$…
Microbullet particles, cylinders with one blunt and one spherical end, offer a novel platform to study the effects of anisotropy and curvature on colloidal assembly in complex fluids. Here, we disperse microbullets in…
We study how confining the equilibrium hard-sphere fluid to restrictive one- and two-dimensional channels with smooth interacting walls modifies its structure, dynamics, and entropy using molecular dynamics and transition-matrix Monte Carlo…
Scales engagement can contribute significantly to nonlinear bending behavior of elastic substrates with rigid biomimetic scales. In this letter, we investigate the role of friction in modulating the nonlinearity that arises due to…
We study the depletion-induced self-assembly of indented colloids. Using state-of-the-art Monte Carlo simulation techniques that treat the depletant particles explicitly, we demonstrate that colloids assemble by a lock-and-key mechanism,…
Liquid crystalline media mediate interactions between suspended particles and confining geometries, which not only has potential to guide patterning and bottom-up colloidal assembly, but can also control colloidal migration in microfluidic…
We present a comprehensive first-principles study of the structural and elastic properties of 2H-MX$_2$ transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) (M = W, Mo, Ta, Nb; X = S, Se). Using density functional theory with various van der Waals…
Assembly and stability of mitotic spindle is governed by the interplay of various intra-cellular forces, e.g. the forces generated by motor proteins by sliding overlapping anti-parallel microtubules (MTs) polymerized from the opposite…
We study the self-assembly of colloidal microgel particles at a quasi-two-dimensional air-water interface of a drying droplet. Using bright-field microscopy, we demonstrate that increasing particle elasticity drives interfacial organization…
The connection between the properties of cell tissue and those of the single constituent cells remains to be elucidated. At the purely mechanical level, the degree of rigidity of different cellular components, such as the nucleus and the…
The self-assembly of highly anisotropic colloidal particles leads to a rich variety of morphologies, whose properties are just beginning to be understood. This article uses computer simulations to probe a particle-scale perturbation of a…