Popov AV, Craven GT, Hernandez R. Nonequilibrium structure in sequential assembly.
PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2015;
92:052108. [PMID:
26651648 DOI:
10.1103/physreve.92.052108]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
The assembly of monomeric constituents into molecular superstructures through sequential-arrival processes has been simulated and theoretically characterized. When the energetic interactions allow for complete overlap of the particles, the model is equivalent to that of the sequential absorption of soft particles on a surface. In the present work, we consider more general cases by including arbitrary aggregating geometries and varying prescriptions of the connectivity network. The resulting theory accounts for the evolution and final-state configurations through a system of equations governing structural generation. We find that particle geometries differ significantly from those in equilibrium. In particular, variations of structural rigidity and morphology tune particle energetics and result in significant variation in the nonequilibrium distributions of the assembly in comparison to the corresponding equilibrium case.
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