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Lindgren EB, Avis H, Miller A, Stamm B, Besley E, Stace AJ. The significance of multipole interactions for the stability of regular structures composed from charged particles. J Colloid Interface Sci 2024; 663:458-466. [PMID: 38417297 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.02.146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/01/2024]
Abstract
Identifying the forces responsible for stabilising binary particle lattices is key to the controlled fabrication of many new materials. Experiments have shown that the presence of charge can be integral to the formation of ordered arrays; however, a complete analysis of the forces responsible has not included many of the significant lattice types that may form during fabrication. A theory of many-body electrostatic interactions has been applied to six lattice stoichiometries, AB, AB2, AB3, AB4, AB5 and AB6, to show that induced multipole interactions can make a very significant (>80 %) contribution to the total lattice energy of arrays of charged particles. Particle radii ratios which favour global minima in electrostatic energy are found to be the same or a close match to those observed by experiment. Although certain lattice types exhibit local energy minima, the calculations show that many-body rather than two-body interactions are ultimately responsible for the structures observed by experiment. For a lattice isostructural with CFe4, a particle size ratio not previously observed is found to be particularly stable due to many-body effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric B Lindgren
- Institute of Applied Analysis and Numerical Simulation, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Holly Avis
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
| | - Abigail Miller
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
| | - Benjamin Stamm
- Institute of Applied Analysis and Numerical Simulation, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Elena Besley
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
| | - Anthony J Stace
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom.
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Besley E. Recent Developments in the Methods and Applications of Electrostatic Theory. Acc Chem Res 2023; 56:2267-2277. [PMID: 37585560 PMCID: PMC10483694 DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.3c00068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/18/2023]
Abstract
ConspectusThe review improves our understanding of how electrostatic interactions in the electrolyte, gas phase, and on surfaces can drive the fragmentation and assembly of particles. This is achieved through the overview of our advanced theoretical and computational modeling toolbox suitable for interpretation of experimental observations and discovery of novel, tunable assemblies and architectures. In the past decade, we have produced a significant, fundamental body of work on the development of comprehensive theories based on a rigorous mathematical foundation. These solutions are capable of accurate predictions of electrostatic interactions between dielectric particles of arbitrary size, anisotropy, composition, and charge, interacting in solvents, ionized medium, and on surfaces. We have applied the developed electrostatic approaches to describe physical and chemical phenomena in dusty plasma and planetary environments, in Coulomb fission and electrospray ionization processes, and in soft matter, including a counterintuitive but widespread attraction between like-charged particles.Despite its long history, the search for accurate methods to provide a deeper understanding of electrostatic interactions remains a subject of significant interest, as manifested by a constant stream of theoretical and experimental publications. While major international effort in this area has focused predominantly on the computational modeling of biocatalytic and biochemical performance, we have expanded the boundaries of accuracy, generality, and applicability of underlying theories. Simple solvation models, often used in calculating the electrostatic component of molecular solvation energy and polarization effects of solvent, rarely go beyond the induced dipole approximation because of computational costs. These approximations are generally adequate at larger separation distances; however, as particles approach the touching point, more advanced charged-induced multipolar descriptions of the electrostatic interactions are required to describe accurately a collective behavior of polarizable neutral and charged particles. At short separations, the electrostatic forces involving polarizable dielectric and conducting particles become nonadditive which necessitates further developments of quantitatively accurate many-body approaches. In applications, the electrostatic response of materials is commonly controlled by externally applied electric fields, an additional complex many-body problem that we have addressed most recently, both theoretically and numerically.This review reports on the most significant results and conclusions underpinning these recent advances in electrostatic theory and its applications. We first discuss the limitations of classical approaches to interpreting electrostatic phenomena in electrolytes and complex plasmas, leading to an extended analytical theory suitable for accurate estimation of the electrostatic forces in a dilute solution of a strong electrolyte. We then introduce the concept and numerical realization of many-body electrostatic theory focusing on its performance in selected experimental cases. These experiments underpin, among other applications, electrostatic self-assembly of two-dimensional lattice structures, melting of ionic colloidal crystals in an external electric field, and coalescence of charged clusters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Besley
- School of Chemistry, University
of Nottingham, University
Park NG2 7RD, U.K.
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Miller A, Halstead M, Besley E, Stace AJ. Designing stable binary endohedral fullerene lattices. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:10044-10052. [PMID: 35415738 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp00196a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Nanoparticle lattices and endohedral fullerenes have both been identified as potential building blocks for future electronic, magnetic and optical devices; here it is proposed that it could be possible to combine those concepts and design stable nanoparticle lattices composed from binary collections of endohedral fullerenes. The inclusion of an atom, for example Ca or F, within a fullerene cage is known to be accompanied by a redistribution of surface charge, whereby the cage can acquire either a negative (Ca) or positive (F) charge. From calculations involving a combination of van der Waals and many-body electrostatic interactions, it is predicted that certain binary combinations, for example a metal (A) and a halogen (B), could result in the formation of stable nanoparticle lattices with the familiar AB and AB2 stoichiometries. Much of the stability is due to Coulomb interactions, however, charge-induced and van der Waals interactions, which always enhance stability, are found to extend the range of charge on a cage over which lattices are stable. Some lattice types are shown to be three or four times more stable than an equivalent neutral C60 structure. An extension of the calculations to the fabrication of structures involving endohedral C84 is also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abigail Miller
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
| | - Matthew Halstead
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
| | - Elena Besley
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
| | - Anthony J Stace
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
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Droplet tilings for rapid exploration of spatially constrained many-body systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2020014118. [PMID: 34417307 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2020014118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Geometry in materials is a key concept which can determine material behavior in ordering, frustration, and fragmentation. More specifically, the behavior of interacting degrees of freedom subject to arbitrary geometric constraints has the potential to be used for engineering materials with exotic phase behavior. While advances in lithography have allowed for an experimental exploration of geometry on ordering that has no precedent in nature, many of these methods are low throughput or the underlying dynamics remain difficult to observe directly. Here, we introduce an experimental system that enables the study of interacting many-body dynamics by exploiting the physics of multidroplet evaporation subject to two-dimensional spatial constraints. We find that a high-energy initial state of this system settles into frustrated, metastable states with relaxation on two timescales. We understand this process using a minimal dynamical model that simulates the overdamped dynamics of motile droplets by identifying the force exerted on a given droplet as being proportional to the two-dimensional vapor gradients established by its neighbors. Finally, we demonstrate the flexibility of this platform by presenting experimental realizations of droplet-lattice systems representing different spin degrees of freedom and lattice geometries. Our platform enables a rapid and low-cost means to directly visualize dynamics associated with complex many-body systems interacting via long-range interactions. More generally, this platform opens up the rich design space between geometry and interactions for rapid exploration with minimal resources.
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Naderi Mehr F, Grigoriev D, Heaton R, Baptiste J, Stace AJ, Puretskiy N, Besley E, Böker A. Self-Assembly Behavior of Oppositely Charged Inverse Bipatchy Microcolloids. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2020; 16:e2000442. [PMID: 32181972 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202000442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2020] [Accepted: 02/21/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
A directed attractive interaction between predefined "patchy" sites on the surfaces of anisotropic microcolloids can provide them with the ability to self-assemble in a controlled manner to build target structures of increased complexity. An important step toward the controlled formation of a desired superstructure is to identify reversible electrostatic interactions between patches which allow them to align with one another. The formation of bipatchy particles with two oppositely charged patches fabricated using sandwich microcontact printing is reported. These particles spontaneously self-aggregate in solution, where a diversity of short and long chains of bipatchy particles with different shapes, such as branched, bent, and linear, are formed. Calculations show that chain formation is driven by a combination of attractive electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged patches and the charge-induced polarization of interacting particles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Naderi Mehr
- Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP, Geiselbergstr. 69, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
| | - Dmitry Grigoriev
- Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP, Geiselbergstr. 69, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
| | - Rebecca Heaton
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Joshua Baptiste
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Anthony J Stace
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Nikolay Puretskiy
- Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP, Geiselbergstr. 69, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
| | - Elena Besley
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Alexander Böker
- Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP, Geiselbergstr. 69, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
- Chair of Polymer Materials and Polymer Technologies, University of Potsdam, Institute of Chemistry, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
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Haeberle J, Harju J, Sperl M, Born P. Granular ionic crystals in a small nutshell. SOFT MATTER 2019; 15:7179-7186. [PMID: 31465078 DOI: 10.1039/c9sm01272a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Ordered two-dimensional arrangements of triboelectrically oppositely charged granular particles have been reported several times, but observations of bulk ordered binary granular particle packings are singular. We attribute this suppression of triboelectrically induced order to the concurrent behaviour of granular particles to pack densest due to gravity. We show that triboelectrically induced order robustly emerges in a container that does not allow for crystallization into a dense packing under gravity. It turns out that the triboelectrically ordered structure follows Pauling's predictions for atomic ionic crystals in many aspects, but also exhibits systematic deviations. We discuss how the emergence of order in an incommensurate container, the deviations from Pauling's predictions and the gravitational potential energy of the particles are connected.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Haeberle
- Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt, 51170 Köln, Germany.
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Stace AJ, Clary DC. Modern theoretical chemistry: the legacy of Prof. John N. Murrell. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2018; 376:rsta.2017.0460. [PMID: 29431685 PMCID: PMC5805920 DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2017.0460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/13/2017] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Anthony J Stace
- School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - David C Clary
- Department of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QZ, UK
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