Phase Organization of Mesogen-Decorated Spherical Nanoparticles

Orlandi, Silvia; Zannoni, Claudio

doi:10.1080/15421406.2012.763213

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…Control over particle sizes and distances of approach, strength of attraction, and softness are used here to generate the same mesophases as block copolymers or surfactants. Nanoparticles coated with rod- or disc-shaped molecules have been shown to form nematic, smectic, and discotic liquid crystals. − The shape-anisotropy of the particles, imparted by the mesogenic character of the coating molecules, is key for the formation of liquid crystals by these particles . The mesogenic mixture of spherical particles of this work, on the other hand, relies on frustrated attraction of different types of particles, and not on shape anisotropy, to produce modulated structures.…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%

Self-Assembly of Mesophases from Nanoparticles

Kumar

Molinero

2017

J. Phys. Chem. Lett.

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A growing number of crystalline and quasi-crystalline structures have been formed by coating nanoparticles with ligands, polymers, and DNA. The design of nanoparticles that assemble into mesophases, such as those formed by block copolymers, would combine the order, mobility, and stimuli responsive properties of mesophases with the electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of nanoparticles. Here we use molecular simulations to demonstrate that binary mixtures of unbound particles with simple short-ranged pair interactions produce the same mesophases as block copolymers and surfactants, including lamellar, hexagonal, gyroid, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, perforated lamellar, and semicrystalline phases. The key to forming the mesophases is the frustrated attraction between particles of different types, achieved through control over interparticle size and over strength and softness of the interaction. Experimental design of nanoparticles with effective interactions described by the potentials of this work would provide a distinct, robust route to produce ordered tunable liquid crystalline mesophases from nanoparticles.

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mentioning

confidence: 89%

Self-Assembly of Mesophases from Nanoparticles

Kumar

Molinero

2017

J. Phys. Chem. Lett.

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“…The grounds for such coarse-graining (besides general arguments given above) are to be found in some previous simulation studies [18][19][20], where, in particular, it was found that the central core of the generation three carbosilane dendrimer is on average spherically symmetric in all (isotropic, nematic and smectic A) phases of LC solvent [18]. The models that exploit this fact have already been considered, namely in the form of a sphere with attached chains, each containing a mesogen [21,22], as well as a sphere decorated by Gay-Berne particles directly on its surface [23]. The number of bulk phases have been found in these simulation works.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relation between the grafting density of liquid crystal macromolecule and the symmetry of self-assembled bulk phase: coarse-grained molecular dynamics study

Ilnytskyi¹

2013

Condens. Matter Phys.

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I consider a generic coarse-grained model suitable for the study of bulk self-assembly of liquid crystal (LC) macromolecules. The cases include LC dendrimers, gold nanoparticles modified by polymer chains with terminating LC groups and others. The study is focused on the relation between a number of grafted chains, AE , and the symmetry of the self-assembled bulk phases. Simple space-filling arguments are used first to estimate stability intervals for a rod-like, disc-like and spherulitic conformations in terms of AE . These are followed by coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations for both spontaneous and aided self-assembly of LC macromolecules into bulk phases. In spontaneous self-assembly runs, essential coexistence of rod-like and disc-like conformations is observed (via analysis of the histograms for the molecular asphericity) in a broad interval of AE , which prevents the formation of defect-free structures. The use of uniaxial and planar aiding fields is found to improve self-assembly into monodomain phases by promoting conformations of respective symmetry. Strong shape-phase relation, observed experimentally, is also indicated by the simulations by the coincidence of the stability intervals for the respective conformations with those for the bulk phases.

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“…A good compromise can be achieved by using elements of a multiscale approach [10,11], which builds a coarse-grained model based on the simulation data of a more chemically-detailed model. A coarse-grained model is of rather generic type capturing essential physical details of the atomistic system and allowing to reach required time-and length-scales of a self-assembly [12,13]. Due to inevitable loss of specific chemical details, the comparison with particular chemical realisations is performed on a high level only-via the structure of observed morphologies and via the temperature-or density-driven phase transitions between them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Assembly of Nanoparticles Decorated by Liquid Crystalline Groups: Computer Simulations

Ilnytskyi¹

2020

Self-Assembly of Nanostructures and Patchy Nanoparticles

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We present the results of the computer simulations for the self-assembly of decorated nanoparticles. The models are rather generic and comprise a central core and a shell of ligands containing terminal liquid crystalline group, including the case of the azobenzene chromophores. The simulations are performed using the coarse-grained molecular dynamics with the effective soft-core interparticle interaction potentials obtained from the atomistic simulations. The discussion is centred around the set of the self-assembled morphologies in a melt of 100–200 of such decorated nanoparticles obtained upon the change of the temperature, surface density of ligands, the type of the terminal group attachment, as well as the prediction of the possibility of photo-assisted self-assembly of the nanoparticles decorated by the azobenzene chromophores.

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Phase Organization of Mesogen-Decorated Spherical Nanoparticles

Cited by 6 publications

References 34 publications

Self-Assembly of Mesophases from Nanoparticles

Self-Assembly of Mesophases from Nanoparticles

Relation between the grafting density of liquid crystal macromolecule and the symmetry of self-assembled bulk phase: coarse-grained molecular dynamics study

Self-Assembly of Nanoparticles Decorated by Liquid Crystalline Groups: Computer Simulations

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