The structure of clusters formed by Stockmayer supracolloidal magnetic polymers

Abstract

Unlike Stockmayer fluids, that prove to undergo gas-liquid transition on cooling, the system of dipolar hard or soft spheres without any additional central attraction so far has not been shown to have a critical point. Instead, in the latter, one observes diverse self-assembly scenarios. Crosslinking dipolar soft spheres into supracolloidal magnetic polymer-like structures (SMPs) changes the self-assembly behaviour. Moreover, aggregation in systems of SMPs strongly depends on the constituent topology. For Y-and X-shaped SMPs, under the same conditions in which dipolar hard spheres would form chains, the formation of very large loose gel-like clusters was observed [Journal of Molecular Liquids, 271, 631 (2018)]. In this work, using molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate self-assembly in suspensions of four topologically different SMPs -chains, rings, X and Y -monomers in which interact via Stockmayer potential. As expected, compact drop-like clusters are formed by SMPs in all cases if the central isotropic attraction is introduced, however, their shape and internal structure turn out to depend on the SMPs topology. arXiv:1912.01314v1 [cond-mat.soft]

Dynamic magnetic properties of magnetosomes

“…From a modelling perspective, the structural and static magnetic properties of chains of magnetic nanoparticles have been studied extensively using computer simulations, notably by Kantorovich et al [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. In these investigations, not only linear chains of magnetic particles have been considered, but also more exotic architectures such as Y-shaped, X-shaped, and ring SMPs.…”