Self Assembly of Patchy Anisotropic Particle Forming Free Standing Monolayer Film

Synthesizing thin films using self assembly is one of the important challenges which needs to be addressed for making engineered material using colloidal particle, necessary for creating novel material for photonic, filtration application, etc. Here, a simple model of prolate ellipsoidal particle with two directional bonds is presented and the phase behavior is studied using NVT and NpT Monte Carlo simulation. It is observed that for anisotropic particles with patches two different type of 3D ordered structures are formed along with thermodynamically stable monolayer which is confirmed using thermodynamic integration. The phase diagram shows that the desired 2D super structure can be created using simple self assembly route.

Automated summary

Synthesizing thin films using self assembly is an important challenge for making engineered materials for applications such as photonics and filtration. In this study, a simple model of prolate ellipsoidal particles with two directional bonds was presented and their phase behavior was examined using Monte Carlo simulation. It was found that anisotropic particles with patches can form two different types of 3D ordered structures, along with a thermodynamically stable monolayer. The phase diagram suggests that the desired 2D superstructure can be achieved through self assembly.