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Register a new userStructure and phase behavior of colloidal dumbbells with tunable attractive interactions
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We investigate thermodynamic and structural properties of colloidal dumbbells in the framework provided by the Reference Interaction Site Model (RISM) theory of molecular fluids and Monte Carlo simulations. We consider two different models: in the first one we set identical square-well attractions on the two tangent spheres composing the molecule (SW-SW model); in the second scheme, one of square-well interactions is switched off (HS-SW model). Appreciable differences emerge between the physical properties of the two models. Specifically, the $k to 0$ behavior of SW-SW structure factors $S(k)$ points to the presence of a gas-liquid coexistence, as confirmed by subsequent fluid phase equilibria calculations. Conversely, the HS-SW $S(k)$ develops a low-$k$ peak, signaling the presence of aggregates; such a process destabilizes the gas-liquid phase separation, promoting at low temperatures the formation of a cluster phase, whose structure depends on the system density. We further investigate such differences by studying the phase behavior of a series of intermediate models, obtained from the original SW-SW by progressively reducing the depth of one square-well interaction. RISM structural predictions positively reproduce the simulation data, including the rise of $S(k to 0$) in the SW-SW model and the low-$k$ peak in the HS-SW structure factor. As for the phase behavior, RISM agrees with Monte Carlo simulations in predicting a gas-liquid coexistence for the SW-SW model (though the critical parameters appears overestimated by the theory) and its progressive disappearance moving toward the HS-SW model.
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We investigate the influence of morphology and size on the vibrational properties of disordered clusters of colloidal particles with attractive interactions. From measurements of displacement correlations between particles in each cluster, we extract vibrational properties of the corresponding shadow glassy cluster, with the same geometric configuration and interactions as the source cluster but without damping. Spectral features of the vibrational modes are found to depend strongly on the average number of nearest neighbors, $bar{NN}$, but only weakly on the number of particles in each glassy cluster. In particular, the median phonon frequency, $omega_{med}$, is essentially constant for $bar{NN}$ $<2$ and then grows linearly with $bar{NN}$ for $bar{NN}$ $>2$. This behavior parallels concurrent observations about local isostatic structures, which are absent in clusters with $bar{NN}$ $<2$ and then grow linearly in number for $bar{NN}$$>2$. Thus, cluster vibrational properties appear to be strongly connected to cluster mechanical stability (i.e., fraction of locally isostatic regions), and the scaling of $omega_{med}$ with $bar{NN}$ is reminiscent of the behavior of packings of spheres with repulsive interactions at the jamming transition. Simulations of random networks of springs corroborate observations and suggest that connections between phonon spectra and nearest neighbor number are generic to disordered networks.
Geometric confinement strongly influences the behavior of microparticles in liquid environments. However, to date, nonspherical particle behaviors close to confining boundaries, even as simple as planar walls, remain largely unexplored. Here, we measure the height distribution and orientation of colloidal dumbbells above walls by means of digital in-line holographic microscopy. We find that while larger dumbbells are oriented almost parallel to the wall, smaller dumbbells of the same material are surprisingly oriented at preferred angles. We determine the total height-dependent force acting on the dumbbells by considering gravitational effects and electrostatic particle-wall interactions. Our modeling reveals that at specific heights both net forces and torques on the dumbbells are simultaneously below the thermal force and energy, respectively, which makes the observed orientations possible. Our results highlight the rich near-wall dynamics of nonspherical particles, and can further contribute to the development of quantitative frameworks for arbitrarily-shaped microparticle dynamics in confinement.
We investigate thermodynamic properties of anisotropic colloidal dumbbells in the frameworks provided by the Reference Interaction Site Model (RISM) theory and an Optimized Perturbation Theory (OPT), this latter based on a fourth-order high-temperature perturbative expansion of the free energy, recently generalized to molecular fluids. Our model is constituted by two identical tangent hard spheres surrounded by square-well attractions with same widths and progressively different depths. Gas-liquid coexistence curves are obtained by predicting pressures, free energies, and chemical potentials. In comparison with previous simulation results, RISM and OPT agree in reproducing the progressive reduction of the gas-liquid phase separation as the anisotropy of the interaction potential becomes more pronounced; in particular, the RISM theory provides reasonable predictions for all coexistence curves, bar the strong anisotropy regime, whereas OPT performs generally less well. Both theories predict a linear dependence of the critical temperature on the interaction strength, reproducing in this way the mean-field behavior observed in simulations; the critical density~--~that drastically drops as the anisotropy increases~--~turns to be less accurate. Our results appear as a robust benchmark for further theoretical studies, in support to the simulation approach, of self-assembly in model colloidal systems.
We study numerically the critical behavior of a modified, active Asakura-Oosawa model for colloid-polymer mixtures. The colloids are modeled as self-propelled particles with Vicsek-like interactions. This system undergoes phase separation between a colloid-rich and a polymer-rich phase, whereby the phase diagram depends on the strength of the Vicsek-like interactions. Employing a subsystem-block-density distribution analysis, we determine the critical point and make an attempt to estimate the critical exponents. In contrast to the passive model, we find that the critical point is not located on the rectilinear diameter. A first estimate of the critical exponents $beta$ and $ u$ is consistent with the underlying 3d-Ising universality class observed for the passive model.
Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we investigate the influence of polymer-pore interactions on the dynamics of biopolymer translocation through nanopores. We find that an attractive interaction can significantly change the translocation dynamics. This can be understood by examining the three components of the total translocation time $tau approx tau_1+tau_2+tau_3$ corresponding to the initial filling of the pore, transfer of polymer from the textit{cis} side to the textit{trans} side, and emptying of the pore, respectively. We find that the dynamics for the last process of emptying of the pore changes from non-activated to activated in nature as the strength of the attractive interaction increases, and $tau_3$ becomes the dominant contribution to the total translocation time for strong attraction. This leads to a new dependence of $tau$ as a function of driving force and chain length. Our results are in good agreement with recent experimental findings, and provide a possible explanation for the different scaling behavior observed in solid state nanopores {it vs.} that for the natural $alpha$-hemolysin channel.
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