Self-assembly scenarios of patchy colloidal particles

Abstract

The rapid progress in precisely designing the surface decoration of patchy\ncolloidal particles offers a new, yet unexperienced freedom to create building\nentities for larger, more complex structures in soft matter systems. However,\nit is extremely difficult to predict the large variety of ordered equilibrium\nstructures that these particles are able to undergo under the variation of\nexternal parameters, such as temperature or pressure. Here we show that, by a\nnovel combination of two theoretical tools, it is indeed possible to predict\nthe self-assembly scenario of patchy colloidal particles: on one hand, a\nreliable and efficient optimization tool based on ideas of evolutionary\nalgorithms helps to identify the ordered equilibrium structures to be expected\nat T = 0; on the other hand, suitable simulation techniques allow to estimate\nvia free energy calculations the phase diagram at finite temperature. With\nthese powerful approaches we are able to identify the broad variety of emerging\nself-assembly scenarios for spherical colloids decorated by four patches and we\ninvestigate and discuss the stability of the crystal structures on modifying in\na controlled way the tetrahedral arrangement of the patches.\n