Date: Wednesday 1st of February 2017, 14:00.
Location: DCB2100 (David Chiddick Building).

‘Self-assembly and crystallisation in simple models of colloidal systems’

by Robert Jack,
Department of Physics, University of Bath, Bath, UK.

Abstract:

Experiments on colloids are attractive as a route towards new self-assembled materials, and as models within which we can investigate general principles of self-assembly.  One typically aims to design a colloidal system such that a particular ordered state minimises the free energy, in which case one may hope that the colloid will spontaneously self-assemble into this state.  In practice, this process often fails, due to kinetic trapping — successful self-assembly typically requires the system to be designed such that there is an efficient dynamical pathway into the ordered state [1].

In this talk, I will present some recent computational results on self-assembly in model colloids, including characterisation of the effective interactions among anisotropic particles [2], unusual thermodynamic states that can be formed from such particles [3], and new dynamical results related to the optimisation of self-assembly pathways [4].

[1] S. Whitelam and R. L. Jack, Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem 66, 143 (2015).
[2] C. Law, D. J. Ashton, N. B. Wilding and R. L. Jack, J. Chem. Phys. 145, 084907 (2016).
[3] D. J. Ashton, R. L. Jack, and N. B. Wilding, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 237801 (2015).
[4] C. J. Fullerton and R. L. Jack, J. Chem. Phys. 145, 244505 (2016).