Patterns without Patches: Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Complex Structures from Simple Building Blocks
- Author(s)
- Michael Grünwald, Phillip L. Geissler
- Abstract
Nanoparticles with “sticky patches” have long been proposed as building blocks for the self-assembly of complex structures. The synthetic realizability of such patchy particles, however, greatly lags behind predictions of patterns they could form. Using computer simulations, we show that structures of the same genre can be obtained from a solution of simple isotropic spheres, with control only over their sizes and a small number of binding affinities. In a first step, finite clusters of well-defined structure and composition emerge from natural dynamics with high yield. In effect a kind of patchy particle, these clusters can further assemble into a variety of complex superstructures, including filamentous networks, ordered sheets, and highly porous crystals.
- Organisation(s)
- Computational and Soft Matter Physics
- External organisation(s)
- University of California, Berkeley
- Journal
- ACS Nano
- Volume
- 8
- Pages
- 5891-5897
- No. of pages
- 7
- ISSN
- 1936-0851
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/nn500978p
- Publication date
- 06-2014
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103036 Theoretical physics, 103015 Condensed matter, 103029 Statistical physics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Engineering, General Physics and Astronomy, General Materials Science
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/39ea6a2d-bc8d-4660-853c-36df99a48fdf