- Group Name:
- Project B08: Hydrodynamic Simulation of Passive and Active Janus Particles
- URL Slug:
- project-b08-hydrodynamic-simulation-of-passive-and-active-janus-particles
- Description:
- Janus particles are colloidal particles whose surface has been modified differently in different locations, creating so-called patches. The patches are designed in a way to generate directional interactions between the Janus particles. Janus particles, therefore, often self-assemble into ordered structures, commonly referred to as lattices or crystal structures, even though the system still is a colloidal solution. By variation of the chemical nature, size and location of the patches, a rich set of lattice structures is accessible. In our work so far, we have focused on triblock Janus particles, which carry attractive van-der-Waals patches on the poles and repulsive electrostatic charges around the equator. We developed a detailed dissipative-particle dynamics model for them, which includes surface chemistry and explicit solvent molecules. With this model and our newly devised adaptive metadynamics method, we could clarify their self-assembly into two-dimensional ordered lattices, when they deposit onto a solid substrate, as well as determine the free-energy barriers and molecular mechanisms for transitions between all phases. All this work has, so far, been carried out outside the SFB TRR146 in the framework of DFG Research Grant MU1412/25.
- Parent Group: