Self-assembly of convex particles on spherocylindrical surfaces

Area of Science:

• Nanotechnology
• Materials Science
• Biophysics

Background:

• Controlling nanoscale self-assembly on curved surfaces is essential for developing advanced materials.
• Understanding protein and colloid behavior on non-planar substrates is a key challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the self-assembly of conical subunits on spherocylindrical templates.
• To develop a continuum theory for lattice bending energy on curved surfaces.
• To elucidate the role of curvature mismatch in dictating assembly outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Dynamical simulations of conical subunit self-assembly around spherocylindrical templates.
• Development of a continuum theory for bending energy of triangular lattices on arbitrary surfaces.
• Analysis of assembly on spherical and cylindrical cores to understand curvature effects.

Main Results:

• Assembly is highly sensitive to mismatches between subunit spontaneous curvature and template mean/anisotropic curvature.
• A regime of optimal assembly yielding symmetrical particles exists below a threshold curvature mismatch.
• Defective particle morphologies arise outside the optimal regime, dependent on the degree of mismatch.
• Both intrinsic (Gaussian) and extrinsic (mean) curvatures significantly guide anisotropic subunit assembly.

Conclusions:

• Curvature mismatch is a critical factor in protein and colloid self-assembly on curved templates.
• The findings provide a framework for designing nanoscale materials with controlled morphologies.
• Simulations accurately predict experimental observations of virus capsid protein assembly.