Abstract

We report simulation studies on the self-assembly of a binary mixture of snowman and dumbbell shaped lobed particles. Depending on the lobe size and temperature, different types of self-assembled structures (random aggregates, spherical aggregates, liquid droplets, amorphous wire-like structures, amorphous ring structures, crystalline structures) are observed. At lower temperatures, heterogeneous structures are formed for lobed particles of both shapes. At higher temperatures, homogeneous self-assembled structures are formed mainly by the dumbbell shaped particles, while the snowman shaped particles remain in a dissociated state. We also investigated the porosities of self-assembled structures. The pore diameters in self-assemblies increased with an increase in temperature for a given lobe size. The particles having smaller lobes produced structures with larger pores than the particles having larger lobes. We further investigated the effect of σ, a parameter in the surface-shifted Lennard-Jones potential, on the self-assembled morphologies and their porosities. The self-assembled structures formed at a higher σ value are found to produce larger pores than those at a lower σ.

Highlights

  • The spherical colloidal particles usually self-assemble into close-packed structures driven by their isotropic interactions [1]

  • In our earlier studies [30,31,32,33], we reported on self-assembled morphologies obtained from different types of lobed patchy particles where the patches around a central seed sphere appear as protrusions or lobes

  • We have reported studies on self-assembled structures obtained from a mixture of the snowman and dumbbell shaped particles at different lobe sizes and temperatures

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Summary

Introduction

The spherical colloidal particles usually self-assemble into close-packed structures driven by their isotropic interactions [1]. Colloidal particles with patches, the patchy particles, can self-assemble into diverse structures due to anisotropic interactions [2]. Studies are needed to probe the self-assembly behavior of mixtures of different types of particles. In our earlier studies [30,31,32,33], we reported on self-assembled morphologies obtained from different types of lobed patchy particles where the patches around a central seed sphere appear as protrusions or lobes. We showed that unique porous self-assembled morphologies can be produced depending on the number and the location of lobes. Our earlier study on the effect of the lobe size and temperature on the self-assembly showed that the single-lobed snowman shaped particles self-assemble into only sheets or micelle like structures, whereas the dumbbell shaped particles can

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