Self-limited self-assembly of chiral filaments

The assembly of filamentous bundles with controlled diameters is common in biological systems and desirable for the development of nanomaterials. We discuss dynamical simulations and free energy calculations on patchy spheres with chiral pair interactions that spontaneously assemble into filamentous...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2010-01
Main Authors: Yang, Yasheng, Meyer, Robert B, Hagan, Michael F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bundles
Bundling
Chirality
Computer simulation
Crystal defects
Filaments
Free energy
Nanomaterials
Self-assembly
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Summary:The assembly of filamentous bundles with controlled diameters is common in biological systems and desirable for the development of nanomaterials. We discuss dynamical simulations and free energy calculations on patchy spheres with chiral pair interactions that spontaneously assemble into filamentous bundles. The chirality frustrates long-range crystal order by introducing twist between interacting subunits. For some ranges of system parameters this constraint leads to bundles with a finite diameter as the equilibrium state, and in other cases frustration is relieved by the formation of defects. While some self-limited structures can be modeled as twisted filaments arranged with local hexagonal symmetry, other structures are surprising in their complexity.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1001.4780