Related papers: Designing patchy interactions to self-assemble arb…

Controlling anisotropy is a key concept to generate complex functionality in advanced materials. For this, oriented attachment of nanocrystal building blocks, a self assembly of particles into larger single crystalline objects, is one of…

The fabrication of versatile building blocks that are reliably self-assemble into desired ordered and disordered phases is amongst the hottest topics in contemporary material science. To this end, microscopic units of varying complexity,…

Molecular structures appear to be natural candidates for a quantum technology: individual atoms can support quantum superpositions for long periods, and such atoms can in principle be embedded in a permanent molecular scaffolding to form an…

We introduce a computational method to optimize target physical properties in the full configuration space regarding atomic composition, chemical stoichiometry, and crystal structure. The approach combines the universal potential of the…

The structural control of silicon nanocrystals is an important technological problem. Typically a distribution of nanocrystal sizes and shapes emerges under the uncontrolled aggregation of smaller clusters. The aim of this computational…

The self-assembly of polymer grafted nanoparticles is more and more used in the field of functional materials. However, there is still a lack of analysis on the dynamic transformation paths of different self-assembly morphologies, which…

Entropy alone can self-assemble hard particles into colloidal crystals of remarkable complexity whose structures are the same as atomic and molecular crystals, but with larger lattice spacings. Although particle-based molecular simulation…

The relevance of anisotropic interactions in colloidal systems has recently emerged in the context of the rational design of new soft materials. Patchy colloids of different shapes, patterns and functionalities are considered the new…

Engineering nanostructures from the bottom up enables the creation of carefully engineered complex structures that are not accessible via top down fabrication techniques, in particular, complex periodic structures for applications in…

Periodic assemblies of nanoparticles are central to surface patterning, with applications in biosensing, energy conversion, and nanofabrication. Evaporation of colloidal droplets on substrates provides a simple yet effective route to…

We report an easy and broadly applicable method for the controlled self-assembly of atomically precise Au32(nBu3P)12Cl8 nanoclusters into micro-crystals. This enables the determination of emergent optoelectronic properties resulting from…

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…

Nature hosts a wealth of materials showcasing intricate structures intertwining order, disorder, and hierarchy, delivering resilient multifunctionality surpassing perfect crystals or simplistic disordered materials. The engineering of such…

Spatial confinement of matter in functional nanostructures has propelled these systems to the forefront of nanoscience, both as a playground for exotic physics and quantum phenomena and in multiple applications including plasmonics,…

The ability of thin materials to shape-shift is a common occurrence that leads to dynamic pattern formation and function in natural and man-made structures. However, harnessing this concept to design inorganic structures at the nanoscale…

Patterns generated by a colloidal suspension of nanospheres drying on a frictional substrate are studied by experiments and computer simulations. The obtained two-dimensional self-assembled structures are commonly used for nanosphere…

Ordering nanoparticles into a desired super-structure is often crucial for their technological applications. We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the assembly of nanoparticles in a polymer brush randomly grafted to a planar…

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…

Model patchy particles have been shown to be able to form a wide variety of structures, including symmetric clusters, complex crystals and even two-dimensional quasicrystals. Here, we investigate whether we can design patchy particles that…

Coupling of atoms is the basis of chemistry, yielding the beauty and richness of molecules. We utilize semiconductor nanocrystals as artificial atoms to form nanocrystal molecules that are structurally and electronically coupled. CdSe/CdS…