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Updated: Feb 3, 2026
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Application of Voltage in Dynamic Light Scattering Particle Size Analysis
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Order-disorder transition in soft and deformable particle assembly with dynamic size-dispersity in two dimensions
Rahul Kumar1, Sangwoo Lee1, Patrick T Underhill1
1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA. underp3@rpi.edu.
Soft Matter
|February 2, 2026
Summary
This study models deformable particle packing, revealing that higher penalties for shape changes promote ordered hexagonal crystals. Dynamic size variations shift this order-disorder transition, impacting material properties.
Area of Science:
- Soft matter physics
- Computational materials science
Background:
- Soft and deformable objects like cells and microgels are common.
- Understanding their high-concentration phase behavior is key for controlling order.
Purpose of the Study:
- To model the packing of deformable particles in 2D under thermal fluctuations.
- To investigate how particle deformability and size dispersity influence phase behavior and order-disorder transitions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a Voronoi-based model representing particles as interconnected polygons.
- System energy included penalties for deviations in particle area and perimeter.
- Varied strengths of area and perimeter penalties to simulate dynamic size dispersity and line tension.
Main Results:
- Observed an order-disorder transition (ODT) from disordered states to hexagonal crystal lattices with increasing perimeter penalties.
- Higher dynamic size dispersity shifted the ODT to require greater perimeter penalties.
- Defect formation was found to be easier with smaller area penalties, explaining ODT trends.
Conclusions:
- The model successfully captures the order-disorder transition in deformable particle systems.
- Particle deformability, size dispersity, and thermal fluctuations are critical factors governing the emergent order.
- Normal mode analysis confirmed thermal fluctuations dominate structure in disordered regimes.
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