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Synthesis and Characterization of Supramolecular Colloids
Published on: April 22, 2016
Self-assembly of colloids with competing interactions confined in spheres
Ningyi Li1, Junhong Li1, Lijingting Qing1
1School of Physics, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, Nankai University, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin, 300071, China. liyao@nankai.edu.cn.
Abstract:
At low temperatures, colloidal particles with short-range attractive and long-range repulsive interactions can form various periodic microphases in bulk. In this paper, we investigate the self-assembly behaviour of colloids with competing interactions under spherical confinement by conducting molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the cluster, mixture, cylindrical, perforated lamellar and lamellar structures can be obtained, but the details of the ordered structures are different from those in bulk systems. Interestingly, the system tends to form more perforated structures when confined in smaller spheres. The mechanism behind this phenomenon is driven by the relationship between the energy of the ordered structures and the bending of the confinement wall, which is different from the mechanism in copolymer systems.
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