Mesoscale Simulations of Anisotropic Particles at Fluid-Fluid Interfaces

Abstract

Anisotropic colloidal particles have attracted great interest in industrial applications, such as particle-stabilized emulsions and fabrication of self-assembled complex materials. However, our understanding of the fundamental properties of such systems is still limited. We combine the lattice Boltzmann method and molecular dynamics to simulate multicomponent fluids and suspended particles. We review two examples of our recent research on anisotropic particles. First, we study the ensemble of ellipsoidal particles at a spherical interface. The capillary interactions between the particles cause a local reordering on very long timescales leading to a continuous change in the interface configuration and to an increase of interfacial area. This effect can be utilized to counteract the thermodynamic instability of particle stabilized emulsions and thus offers the possibility to produce emulsions with exceptional stability. Second, we investigate the behaviour of magnetic Janus particles adsorbed at fluid-fluid interfaces interacting with an external magnetic field. We demonstrate that the strength of resulting capillary interactions can be tuned by altering the external field strength, opening up the possibility to create novel, reconfigurable materials.