scholarly journals Mikto-Arm Stars as Soft-Patchy Particles: From Building Blocks to Mesoscopic Structures

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1114
Author(s):  
Petra Bačová ◽  
Dimitris G. Mintis ◽  
Eirini Gkolfi ◽  
Vagelis Harmandaris
Keyword(s):  
Polymer Nanocomposites ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Model System ◽  
The Self ◽  
Mutual Orientation ◽  
Patchy Particles ◽  
Self Assembled ◽  
The Individual

We present an atomistic molecular dynamics study of self-assembled mikto-arm stars, which resemble patchy-like particles. By increasing the number of stars in the system, we propose a systematic way of examining the mutual orientation of these fully penetrable patchy-like objects. The individual stars maintain their patchy-like morphology when creating a mesoscopic (macromolecular) self-assembled object of more than three stars. The self-assembly of mikto-arm stars does not lead to a deformation of the stars, and their shape remains spherical. We identified characteristic sub-units in the self-assembled structure, differing by the mutual orientation of the nearest neighbor stars. The current work aims to elucidate the possible arrangements of the realistic, fully penetrable patchy particles in polymer matrix and to serve as a model system for further studies of nanostructured materials or all-polymer nanocomposites using the mikto-arm stars as building blocks.

scholarly journals Self-Assembly of Shape-Tunable Oblate Colloidal Particles into Orientationally Ordered Crystals, Glassy Crystals and Plastic Crystals

Soft Matter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiawei Lu ◽  
Xiangyu Bu ◽  
Xinghua Zhang ◽  
Bing Liu
Keyword(s):  
Crystal Structures ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Colloidal Particles ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
The Self ◽  
Plastic Crystals ◽  
Self Assembled ◽  
Glassy Crystals ◽  
The Relationship

The shapes of colloidal particles are crucial to the self-assembled superstructures. Understanding the relationship between the shapes of building blocks and the resulting crystal structures is an important fundamental question....

scholarly journals Mono-patchy zwitterionic microcolloids as building blocks for pH-controlled self-assembly

Soft Matter ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 2430-2438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Naderi Mehr ◽  
Dmitry Grigoriev ◽  
Nikolay Puretskiy ◽  
Alexander Böker
Keyword(s):  
Self Assembly ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Free Surfaces ◽  
Patchy Particles ◽  
Self Assembled ◽  
Oppositely Charged ◽  
Ph Controlled

Not only in theory but also experimentally, mono-patchy particles can be self-assembled via pH-controlled electrostatic attractions between their oppositely charged patchy and patch-free surfaces.

scholarly journals Multilayer Self-Assemblies as Electronic and Optical Materials

1997 ◽  
Vol 488 ◽  
Author(s):  
DeQuan Li ◽  
M. Lütt ◽  
Xiaobo Shi ◽  
M. R. Fitzsimmons
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Film Growth ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Layer Growth ◽  
The Self ◽  
Growth Surface ◽  
Layer By Layer ◽  
Self Assembled ◽  
Average Electron

AbstractThe layer-by-layer growth of film structures consisting of sequential depositions of oppositely charged polymers and macrocycles (ring-shaped molecules) have been constructed using molecular self-assembly techniques. These self-assembled thin films were characterized with X-ray reflectometry, which yielded (1) the average electron density, (2) the average thicknesses, and (3) the roughness of the growth surface of the self-assembled multilayer of macrocycles and polymers. These observations suggest that inorganic-organic interactions play an important role during the initial stages of thin-film growth, but less so as the thin film becomes thicker. Optical absorption techniques were also used to characterize the self-assembled multilayers. Phorphyrin and phthalocyanine derivatives were chosen as the building blocks of the self-assembled multilayers because of their interesting optical properties.

scholarly journals Bifurcation of self-assembly pathways to sheet or cage controlled by kinetic template effect

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Hayato Foianesi-Takeshige ◽  
Satoshi Takahashi ◽  
Tomoki Tateishi ◽  
Ryosuke Sekine ◽  
Atsushi Okazawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Self Assembly ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Self ◽  
Numerical Analyses ◽  
Template Effect ◽  
Self Assembled ◽  
Assembly Pathways ◽  
Formation Step

Abstract The template effect is a key feature to control the arrangement of building blocks in assemblies, but its kinetic nature remains elusive compared to the thermodynamic aspects, with the exception of very simple reactions. Here we report a kinetic template effect in a self-assembled cage composed of flexible ditopic ligands and Pd(II) ions. Without template anion, a micrometer-sized sheet is kinetically trapped (off-pathway), which is converted into the thermodynamically most stable cage by the template anion. When the template anion is present from the start, the cage is selectively produced by the preferential cyclization of a dinuclear intermediate (on-pathway). Quantitative and numerical analyses of the self-assembly of the cage on the on-pathway revealed that the accelerating effect of the template is stronger for the early stage reactions of the self-assembly than for the final cage formation step itself, indicating the kinetic template effect.

scholarly journals Self-Assembly of Porous Structures From a Binary Mixture of Lobed Patchy Particles

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjib Paul ◽  
Harish Vashisth
Keyword(s):  
Binary Mixture ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
The Self ◽  
Amorphous Wire ◽  
Liquid Droplets ◽  
Jones Potential ◽  
Patchy Particles ◽  
Heterogeneous Structures ◽  
Ring Structures ◽  
Self Assembled

We report simulation studies on the self-assembly of a binary mixture of snowman and dumbbell shaped lobed particles. Depending on the lobe size and temperature, different types of self-assembled structures (random aggregates, spherical aggregates, liquid droplets, amorphous wire-like structures, amorphous ring structures, crystalline structures) are observed. At lower temperatures, heterogeneous structures are formed for lobed particles of both shapes. At higher temperatures, homogeneous self-assembled structures are formed mainly by the dumbbell shaped particles, while the snowman shaped particles remain in a dissociated state. We also investigated the porosities of self-assembled structures. The pore diameters in self-assemblies increased with an increase in temperature for a given lobe size. The particles having smaller lobes produced structures with larger pores than the particles having larger lobes. We further investigated the effect of σ, a parameter in the surface-shifted Lennard-Jones potential, on the self-assembled morphologies and their porosities. The self-assembled structures formed at a higher σ value are found to produce larger pores than those at a lower σ.

scholarly journals Self-assembly of amino acids toward functional biomaterials

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 1140-1150
Author(s):  
Huan Ren ◽  
Lifang Wu ◽  
Lina Tan ◽  
Yanni Bao ◽  
Yuchen Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Assembled ◽  
Functional Biomaterials ◽  
Proteins And Peptides

Biomolecules, such as proteins and peptides, can be self-assembled. They are widely distributed, easy to obtain, and biocompatible. However, the self-assembly of proteins and peptides has disadvantages, such as difficulty in obtaining high quantities of materials, high cost, polydispersity, and purification limitations. The difficulties in using proteins and peptides as functional materials make it more complicate to arrange assembled nanostructures at both microscopic and macroscopic scales. Amino acids, as the smallest constituent of proteins and the smallest constituent in the bottom-up approach, are the smallest building blocks that can be self-assembled. The self-assembly of single amino acids has the advantages of low synthesis cost, simple modeling, excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability in vivo. In addition, amino acids can be assembled with other components to meet multiple scientific needs. However, using these simple building blocks to design attractive materials remains a challenge due to the simplicity of the amino acids. Most of the review articles about self-assembly focus on large molecules, such as peptides and proteins. The preparation of complicated materials by self-assembly of amino acids has not yet been evaluated. Therefore, it is of great significance to systematically summarize the literature of amino acid self-assembly. This article reviews the recent advances in amino acid self-assembly regarding amino acid self-assembly, functional amino acid self-assembly, amino acid coordination self-assembly, and amino acid regulatory functional molecule self-assembly.

scholarly journals Homochiral Supramolecular Thin Film from Self-Assembly of Achiral Triarylamine Molecules by Circularly Polarized Light

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 402
Author(s):  
Changjun Park ◽  
Jinhee Lee ◽  
Taehyoung Kim ◽  
Jaechang Lim ◽  
Jeyoung Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Thin Films ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Self ◽  
Assembly Process ◽  
Circularly Polarized Light ◽  
Circularly Polarized ◽  
Self Assembled

Here, we report the formation of homochiral supramolecular thin film from achiral molecules, by using circularly polarized light (CPL) only as a chiral source, on the condition that irradiation of CPL does not induce a photochemical change of the achiral molecules. Thin films of self-assembled structures consisting of chiral supramolecular fibrils was obtained from the triarylamine derivatives through evaporation of the self-assembled triarylamine solution. The homochiral supramolecular helices with the desired handedness was achieved by irradiation of circularly polarized visible light during the self-assembly process, and the chiral stability of supramolecular self-assembled product was achieved by photopolymerization of the diacetylene moieties at side chains of the building blocks, with irradiation of circularly polarized ultraviolet light. This work provides a novel methodology for the generation of homochiral supramolecular thin film from the corresponding achiral molecules.

Pt and Pt–Rh supercrystals self-assembled in N,N-dimethylformamide

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (28) ◽  
pp. 5023-5026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin-Xiu Dai ◽  
Xin-Yu Wang ◽  
Xiao-Yu Zheng ◽  
Ya-Wen Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Self Assembly ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Self ◽  
Structure Directing Agent ◽  
Self Assembled ◽  
Specific Agent

N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) serves as the facet-specific agent for the formation of a cubic shape and the structure-directing agent for the self-assembly of Pt and Pt–Rh building blocks of the supercrystals.

Nanoscale Self-Assembly Using Ion and Electron Beam Techniques: A Rapid Review

MRS Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (64) ◽  
pp. 3507-3520
Author(s):  
Chunhui Dai ◽  
Kriti Agarwal ◽  
Jeong-Hyun Cho
Keyword(s):  
Electron Beam ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
The Self ◽  
Stress Generation ◽  
Rapid Review ◽  
High Yield ◽  
3D Nanostructures ◽  
Self Assembled

AbstractNanoscale self-assembly, as a technique to transform two-dimensional (2D) planar patterns into three-dimensional (3D) nanoscale architectures, has achieved tremendous success in the past decade. However, an assembly process at nanoscale is easily affected by small unavoidable variations in sample conditions and reaction environment, resulting in a low yield. Recently, in-situ monitored self-assembly based on ion and electron irradiation has stood out as a promising candidate to overcome this limitation. The usage of ion and electron beam allows stress generation and real-time observation simultaneously, which significantly enhances the controllability of self-assembly. This enables the realization of various complex 3D nanostructures with a high yield. The additional dimension of the self-assembled 3D nanostructures opens the possibility to explore novel properties that cannot be demonstrated in 2D planar patterns. Here, we present a rapid review on the recent achievements and challenges in nanoscale self-assembly using electron and ion beam techniques, followed by a discussion of the novel optical properties achieved in the self-assembled 3D nanostructures.

Reversible microscale assembly of nanoparticles driven by the phase transition of a thermotropic liquid crystal

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh Mac Fhionnlaoich ◽  
Stephen Schrettl ◽  
Nicholas B. Tito ◽  
Ye Yang ◽  
Malavika Nair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phase Transition ◽  
Liquid Crystal ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Nematic Phase ◽  
Hierarchical Control ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Model System ◽  
Microscopic Level ◽  
Reversible Process ◽  
Thermotropic Liquid Crystal

The arrangement of nanoscale building blocks into patterns with microscale periodicity is challenging to achieve via self-assembly processes. Here, we report on the phase transition-driven collective assembly of gold nanoparticles in a thermotropic liquid crystal. A temperature-induced transition from the isotropic to the nematic phase leads to the assembly of individual nanometre-sized particles into arrays of micrometre-sized aggregates, whose size and characteristic spacing can be tuned by varying the cooling rate. This fully reversible process offers hierarchical control over structural order on the molecular, nanoscopic, and microscopic level and is an interesting model system for the programmable patterning of nanocomposites with access to micrometre-sized periodicities.

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