Phase diagram of SALR fluids on spherical surfaces

Abstract

A DFT study of a fluid of hard disks with competing attractive and repulsive interactions on a spherical surface uncovers a very rich phase diagram, featuring stripes, bubbles, and many cluster phases.

Self-Assembly of Optimally Packed Cylindrical Clusters inside Spherical Shells

“…Note that all these structures can be derived from the previously discussed mathematical model. In a recent study of SALR disks confined to the surface of a sphere, structures very similar to the ones considered by us have been reported …”

“…In a recent study of SALR disks confined to the surface of a sphere, structures very similar to the ones considered by us have been reported. 16 In Figure 3b, we present a more complex example of the larger hybrid structure for the spherical shell of R inn = 5σ and R out = 10σ. The simulations predict the stability of the structure with four tori and the structure with two spheres at the poles and three tori for μ* = −2.180 and −2.170, respectively, with very similar densities and energies.…”

“…In a recent study of SALR disks confined to the surface of a sphere, structures very similar to the ones considered by us have been reported. 16 …”

“…In a fluid of SALR particles confined to the surface of a sphere, helical structures have also been obtained in the density functional theory calculations and simulations . In our study, we are using a SALR potential with a flat minimum and are modeling a quasi-two-dimensional system, whereas in refs and , a SALR potential with a very sharp minimum is used, and the system is strictly two-dimensional. Since different SALR systems behave in a universal way, one would expect that the structures presented in this article can be observed in other such systems.…”

Competition between clustering and phase separation in binary mixtures containing SALR particles

“…Similar stripes have been recently observed in SALR fluids and asymmetric diblock copolymers on a sphere. 71,72 The possibility to form such patterns without artificially enforcing the spherical confinement is a novelty of our study, which seems to be inextricably connected with the nature of the cross potential. A more detailed analysis of this result is deferred to future studies.…”