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E. Bianchi:
"Model systems with directional interactions for anisotropy-driven self-assembly";
Vortrag: Seminar, Universita di Roma Tre, Rom (eingeladen); 15.09.2017.

Suitably designed coarse-grained models of particles at the nano-scale can provide a useful tool to investigate the collective behavior of a wide variety of systems, ranging from atomic/molecular to colloidal or polymer-based systems. Theoretical and simulation studies based of the assumption of spherically symmetric interactions between the constituent particles have led to tremendous advancements in material science. Nonetheless, the isotropy of the interactions is an idealization that can be treated as a zero-th order point of departure for the analysis of more complicated and realistic situations. Particles interacting via anisotropic, directional and possibly selective potentials can model for instance water, silicon and carbon (at the molecular scale) as well as recently synthesized patchy colloids (at the nano- and micro-scale) [1, 2]. I will focus on three different classes of systems, namely (i) conventional patchy units [3] - i.e. overall repulsive particles carrying a fixed number of attractive bonding sites in a predefined geometry -, (ii) inverse patchy colloids [4] - i.e. patchy particles with charged surface regions -, and (iii) soft and flexible patchy units [5]- i.e. patchy particles with mobile patches-, and I will relate the features of these coarse- grained models to the physical systems underneath them. Subsequently, I will present some selected results to illustrate how the basic features of the single particles can be used for rational materials design.

[1] A. B. Pawar and I. Kretzschmar. Macromol. Rapid. Commun., 31:150, 2010.
[2] E. Bianchi, R. Blaak, and C. N. Likos. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 13:6397, 2011.
[3] E. Bianchi, J. Largo, P. Tartaglia, E. Zaccarelli, and F. Sciortino. Phys. Rev. Lett., 97:168301, 2006.
[4] E. Bianchi, G. Kahl, and C. N. Likos. Soft Matter, 7:8313, 2011.
[5] E. Bianchi, B. Capone, G. Kahl, and C. N. Likos. Faraday Discussions, 181:123, 2015.

Projektleitung Gerhard Kahl:
DFS