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

Abstract

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.