Design of patchy particles using ternary self-assembled monolayers

Abstract

Recent simulations have studied the formation of patterns in a binary mixture of immiscible surfactants adsorbed onto the surface of a spherical nanoparticle. The resulting patterns (Janus, spots and stripes) were in good agreement with experimental results. We perform dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations to study the patterns obtained by adding a third surfactant to the monolayer as a guide towards increasing the richness and diversity of patchy particles synthesized this way. We predict a variety of new patterns that can be produced through different combinations of simple design elements, like nanocolloid size, degree of surfactant immiscibility, stoichiometry of the monolayer, and length difference between surfactants. In all cases, free energy minimization through conformational entropy maximization determines equilibrium pattern formation.