Auto-organização de partículas coloidais do tipo patchy

Abstract

Self-organization is a fundamental principle that generates structural organization on all scales, ranging from molecules to galaxies. This phenomenon is defined as a process in which parts or disordered components of a pre-existing system standards structural form. The simulation and reproduction of these organizational strategies and new molecules with the ability to self-organize is a key technique in nanotechnology. In systems of type soft matter (colloids, polymers, etc.) links are broken and reformed, allowing the system to reorganize in different ways, resulting in the formation of many clusters. Advances in experimental techniques have allowed the creation of armored colloidal particles with active sites -patches - generating different functionalities that particle. Unlike standard colloid particles patchy type structures form with a ground state, which is governed by specific interaction anisotropy. A system with these particles therefore appears promising way to achieve the necessary control of the shape and the interaction between constituents’ clusters for the formation of functional materials. In this work, using the computational method of molecular dynamics, we show that for a particle system with two, three and four active sites, the resulting interaction varies with the density and the total load of each particle. Furthermore, it was made a microstructural analysis of the bond angles between particles with two patches. With this study the radial distribution function, it was possible to observe the formation and structure of percolating particles clusters with two or three active sites, whereas for particles with four active sites any configuration resulted in a percolating cluster.