AbstractsEngineering

With the advent of anisotropic particles at different scales, bottom-up self-assembly of such particles is an alternative strategy for the formation of complex structures with promising and applicable collective properties. In particular, particles that exhibit anisotropic shape carrying tunable patchy interactions are of central importance for nanoengineering due to their ability to spontaneously assemble into exotic structures. Inspired by experimental results, I present and elucidate the role of entropy, in particular for two-dimensional systems, and also the competition between entropic and enthalpic forces as a mechanism to realize single- and multi-component superlattices with rich phase behavior. Specifically, I confirm and characterize phase transitions of hard anisotropic polygons at intermediate densities, show liquid-hexatic or liquid-tetratic orders. The underlying competition between entropic and enthalpic patchiness is exploited to arrive at general design rules for complex structures in two- and three-dimensional systems.