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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
Hierarchical self-assembly of asymmetric amphiphatic spherical colloidal particles
William L Miller1, Angelo Cacciuto
1Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
Abstract:
From dumbbells to fcc crystals, we study the self-assembly pathway of amphiphatic spherical colloidal particles as a function of the size of the hydrophobic region using molecular-dynamics simulations. Specifically, we analyze how local interparticle interactions correlate to the final self-assembled aggregate and how they affect the dynamical pathway of structure formation. We present a detailed diagram separating the many phases that we find for different sizes of the hydrophobic area and uncover a narrow region where particles self-assemble into hollow faceted cages that could potentially find interesting engineering applications.
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