The role of particle shape in self-assembly processes is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, particle shape and particle elongation are often considered the most fundamental determinants of soft matter structure formation. On the other hand, structure formation is often highly sensitive to details of shape. Here, we address the question of particle shape sensitivity for the self-assembly of hard pear-shaped particles by studying two models for this system: (a) the pear hard Gaussian overlap (PHGO) and (b) the hard pears of revolution (HPR) model. Hard pear-shaped particles, given by the PHGO model, are known to form a bicontinuous gyroid phase spontaneously. However, this model does not replicate an additive object perfectly and, hence, varies slightly in shape from a “true” pear-shape. Therefore, we investigate in the first part of this series the stability of the gyroid phase in pear-shaped particle systems. We show, based on the HPR phase diagram, that the gyroid phase does not form in pears with such a “true” hard pear-shaped potential. Moreover, we acquire first indications from the HPR and PHGO pair-correlation functions that the formation of the gyroid is probably attributed to the small non-additive properties of the PHGO potential.
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21 July 2020
Research Article|
July 20 2020
Self-assembly and entropic effects in pear-shaped colloid systems. I. Shape sensitivity of bilayer phases in colloidal pear-shaped particle systems
Philipp W. A. Schönhöfer
;
Philipp W. A. Schönhöfer
a)
1
College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Mathematics and Statistics, Murdoch University
, 90 South Street, 6150 Murdoch, WA, Australia
2
Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
, Staudtstraße 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: Philipp.Schoenhoefer@fau.de
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Matthieu Marechal
;
Matthieu Marechal
2
Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
, Staudtstraße 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
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Douglas J. Cleaver
;
Douglas J. Cleaver
3
Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University
, Sheffield S1 1WB, United Kingdom
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Gerd E. Schröder-Turk
Gerd E. Schröder-Turk
b)
1
College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Mathematics and Statistics, Murdoch University
, 90 South Street, 6150 Murdoch, WA, Australia
4
Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University
, 0200 Canberra, ACT, Australia
; Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen
, Rolighedsvej 26, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
; and Physical Chemistry, Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lund University
, Lund 22100, Sweden
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: Philipp.Schoenhoefer@fau.de
J. Chem. Phys. 153, 034903 (2020)
Article history
Received:
March 11 2020
Accepted:
May 17 2020
Connected Content
A companion article has been published:
Self-assembly and entropic effects in pear-shaped colloid systems. II. Depletion attraction of pear-shaped particles in a hard-sphere solvent
Citation
Philipp W. A. Schönhöfer, Matthieu Marechal, Douglas J. Cleaver, Gerd E. Schröder-Turk; Self-assembly and entropic effects in pear-shaped colloid systems. I. Shape sensitivity of bilayer phases in colloidal pear-shaped particle systems. J. Chem. Phys. 21 July 2020; 153 (3): 034903. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0007286
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