Journal
NANO LETTERS
Volume 12, Issue 10, Pages 5299-5303Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/nl302620j
Keywords
Octapods; nanocrystals; quasi-2D; self-assembly; anisotropy; colloids
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Funding
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) Vici Grant
- Utrecht University High Potential Programme
- European Union through the FP7 starting ERC Grant NANO-ARCH [240111]
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We studied crystal structures in a monolayer consisting of anisotropic branched colloidal (nano)octapods. Experimentally, octapods were observed to form a monolayer on a substrate with a square-lattice crystal structure by drop-casting and fast evaporation of solvent. The experimental results were analyzed by Monte Carlo simulations using a hard octapod model consisting of four interpenetrating spherocylinders. We confirmed by means of free-energy calculations that crystal structures with a (binary-lattice) square morphology are indeed thermodynamically stable at high densities. The effect of the pod length-to-diameter ratio on the crystal structures was also considered and we used this to constructed the phase diagram for these hard octapods. In addition to the (binary-lattice) square crystal phase, a rhombic crystal and a hexagonal plastic-crystal (rotator) phase were obtained. Our phase diagram may prove instrumental in guiding future experimental studies.
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