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Origami Inspired Self-assembly of Patterned and Reconfigurable Particles

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Published on: February 4, 2013

Energy landscapes for shells assembled from pentagonal and hexagonal pyramids.

Szilard N Fejer¹, Tim R James, Javier Hernández-Rojas

¹University Chemical Laboratories, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, UK CB2 1EW.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP

|March 13, 2009

Summary

New rigid body potentials promote efficient self-assembly of pyramids into icosahedral shells. Adding a repulsive site transforms frustrated energy landscapes, enabling self-assembly, similar to hydrophobic-hydrophilic interactions in micelle formation.

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Computational Chemistry
Chemical Engineering

Background:

Self-assembly is crucial for creating complex structures from simple building blocks.
Previous models faced challenges in achieving efficient self-assembly of specific geometric shapes.
Understanding molecular interactions is key to designing self-assembling systems.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop novel rigid body potentials for enhanced self-assembly.
To investigate the transformation of frustrated energy landscapes into self-assembling systems.
To explore the analogy between the new potentials and hydrophobic-hydrophilic interactions.

Main Methods:

Introduction of an additional repulsive site in rigid body potentials.
Simulation of pentagonal and hexagonal pyramids.
Analysis of energy landscapes and self-assembly behavior.

Main Results:

New potentials significantly favor efficient self-assembly into icosahedral shells.
The added repulsive site effectively resolves energy landscape frustration.
The system exhibits self-assembling properties across a broad temperature range.

Conclusions:

The developed rigid body potentials offer a promising route for controlled self-assembly.
The findings provide insights into designing materials with desired structural properties.
The analogy to hydrophobic-hydrophilic repulsion offers a conceptual framework for future designs.