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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Self-Assembly of Microtubule Tactoids
Published on: June 23, 2022
Self-assembly of laterally-tethered nanorods
Mark A Horsch1, Zhenli Zhang, Sharon C Glotzer
1Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA.
Abstract:
We report results from a computational study of laterally tethered nanorod "shape amphiphiles". Our simulations predict that the model nanorods self-assemble into stepped-ribbon-like micelles, a centered rectangular stepped-ribbon phase, and two structurally different liquid crystalline bilayer phases: one in which the bilayers have C(mm) symmetry and another in which they have P(2) symmetry. We provide a possible explanation for the transition between the two C(mm) and P(2) liquid crystalline phases.
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