Abstract
The binding of crescent-shaped nanoparticles (CNPs) on nanoscale tubular membranes is investigated through systematic coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of an implicit-solvent model. The CNPs adhere through their concave side to the outer surface of the tubular membrane. The binding/unbinding transitions are found to be irreversible, with the threshold binding energy, Eb, being higher than that of the unbinding threshold, Eu. Furthermore, the difference Eb-Eu increases with increasing either the CNP’s arclength, Lnp, or curvature mismatch, m=Rt/Rnp, where Rnp is the CNP’s radius of curvature and Rt is the tube’s radius. We also investigated the arrangement of a CNP on the tube and found that for m smaller than a Lnp-dependent m∗, the CNP lies perpendicularly to the tubule. However, for m<m∗<1, the CNP is tilted with respect to the tubule’s axis, with the tilt angle that increases with decreasing m. for m>1 (or m<m) and high Lnp, the NPs self-assemble into chains.
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