Rotator and crystalline films viaself-assembly of short-bond-length colloidal dimers

Abstract

Nonspherical particles of pear-like and spherocylinder shape were organized into diverse two-dimensional (2D) structures, including the orientationally disordered rotator. Dry films with hexagonal, oblique, and centered rectangular symmetry were obtained by using convective assembly to condense and confine the system in a thin meniscus region. Monte Carlo simulations confirmed the transition from fluid to rotator simply as a function of system density and short-bond-length particle morphology.

Shape-anisotropic colloids: Building blocks for complex assemblies

“…Using this technique, which is often referred to as 'convective assembly', Liddel and coworkers assembled spherocylinder and pear-like colloids into a variety of ordered 2D packings including the orientationally disordered rotator [59,60]. Ding et al further developed this method by combining capillary and magnetic forces.…”

Polar liquid crystals in two spatial dimensions: The bridge from microscopic to macroscopic modeling

“…The polar particles are supposed to interact in accordance with a prescribed pair-interaction potential V( r 1 − r 2 ,û 1 ,û 2 ). Typical examples include particles with an embedded dipole moment [57][58][59] modeled by a dipolar hard disk potential, colloidal pearlike particles [60,61] with corresponding excluded volume interactions, Janus particles [62,63], which possess two different sides, and asymmetric brush polymers modeled by Gaussian segment potentials [64]. We define the one-particle density field as…”

Dynamical density functional theory for colloidal particles with arbitrary shape

“…Carbon nanocones appear naturally in graphite [34][35][36] and do not need to be produced by an elaborate method. By the mergence of two spheres with different diameters, one obtains a pear-like particle [37,38]. Pears and also bowls [39,40] are non-convex particles that are uniaxial and polar.…”