Self-assembly and entropic effects in pear-shaped colloid systems. II. Depletion attraction of pear-shaped particles in a hard-sphere solvent

SCHÖNHÖFER, Philipp W.A., MARECHAL, Matthieu, CLEAVER, Douglas J. and SCHRÖDER-TURK, Gerd E (2020). Self-assembly and entropic effects in pear-shaped colloid systems. II. Depletion attraction of pear-shaped particles in a hard-sphere solvent. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 153 (3), 034904-034904.

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Official URL: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.00072...
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0007287

Abstract

We consider depletion effects of a pear-shaped colloidal particle in a hard-sphere solvent for two different model realizations of the pear-shaped colloidal particle. The two models are the pear hard Gaussian overlap (PHGO) particles and the hard pears of revolution (HPR). The motivation for this study is to provide a microscopic understanding for the substantially different mesoscopic self-assembly properties of these pear-shaped colloids, in dense suspensions, that have been reported in the previous studies. This is done by determining their differing depletion attractions via Monte Carlo simulations of PHGO and HPR particles in a pool of hard spheres and comparing them with excluded volume calculations of numerically obtained ideal configurations on the microscopic level. While the HPR model behaves as predicted by the analysis of excluded volumes, the PHGO model showcases a preference for splay between neighboring particles, which can be attributed to the special non-additive characteristics of the PHGO contact function. Lastly, we propose a potentially experimentally realizable pear-shaped particle model, the non-additive hard pear of revolution model, which is based on the HPR model but also features non-additive traits similar to those of PHGO particles to mimic their depletion behavior.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Chemical Physics; 02 Physical Sciences; 03 Chemical Sciences; 09 Engineering
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0007287
Page Range: 034904-034904
SWORD Depositor: Symplectic Elements
Depositing User: Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited: 24 Jul 2020 14:02
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2021 00:01
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26759

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