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Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Complex structures generated by competing interactions in harmonically confined colloidal suspensions
E O Lima1, P C N Pereira1, H Löwen2
1Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901 Recife, PE, Brazil.
None:
We investigate the structural properties of colloidal particle systems interacting via an isotropic pair potential and confined by a three-dimensional harmonic potential. The interaction potential has a repulsive-attractive-repulsive profile that varies with the interparticle distance (also known as a 'mermaid' potential). We performed Langevin dynamics simulations to find the equilibrium configurations of the system. We show that particles can self-assemble in complex structural patterns, such as compact disks, fringed disks, rods, spherical clusters with superficial entrances among others. Also, for particular values of the parameters of the interaction potential, we could identify that some configurations were formed by quasi two-dimensional (2D) structures which are stable for 2D systems.
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