Program

O.1 -- Oral, IWTCP-3

Date: Monday, 27 July 2015

Time: 15h10 - 15h30

Coarse-grained models for the formation of self-limited supraparticle assemblies

Trung D. Nguyen (1,2), Benjamin A. Schultz (2), Nicholas A. Kotov (2) and Sharon C. Glotzer (2)

(1) Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Vietnam; (2) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

Engineering nano-assemblies with a terminal size has been of particular interest as it enables a broad array of applications in photonics, catalysis and drug delivery. Recent experiments have indicated that terminal assemblies can be synthesized in both inorganic [1] and hybrid inorganic/organic [2] systems, suggesting that a generic assembly mechanism is likely at work. In this study, we developed a generic, coarse-grained model that can explain the formation of terminal assemblies by capturing the balance between van der Waals attraction and renormalized Coulombic repulsion between the assembling particles when they aggregate. Using Molecular Dynamics simulation and energy analysis, we show that the uniform-sized supraparticles are stable over a wide range of density, indicating that they are thermodynamically stable, instead of consequences of limited diffusion or kinetic arrest. The generic nature of the governing interactions suggests great versatility in the composition, size and shape of the constituent building blocks, and allows for a large family of hierarchical self-assembled structures, including colloidal crystals. References [1] Y. Xia et al., Nat. Nanotechnol. 2011, 6, 580. [2] J. Park et al., Nat. Commun. 2014, 5, 3593.

Presenter: Trung D. Nguyen