Phase behavior and structure of a new colloidal model system of bowl-shaped particles.
Nano Lett
; 10(5): 1907-11, 2010 May 12.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20387799
ABSTRACT
We study the phase behavior of bowl-shaped (nano)particles using confocal microscopy and computer simulations. Experimentally, we find the formation of a wormlike fluid phase in which the bowl-shaped particles have a strong tendency to stack on top of each other. However, using free energy calculations in computer simulations, we show that the wormlike phase is out-of-equilibrium and that the columnar phase is thermodynamically stable for sufficiently deep bowls and high densities. In addition, we employ a novel technique based on simulated annealing to predict the crystal structures for shallow bowls. We find four exotic new crystal structures and we determine their region of stability using free energy calculations. We discuss the implications of our results for the development of materials consisting of molecular mesogens or nanoparticles.
Texto completo:
1
Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Modelos Moleculares
/
Cristalização
/
Nanotecnologia
/
Nanoestruturas
/
Modelos Químicos
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Nano Lett
Ano de publicação:
2010
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Holanda