Self-assembly of colloidal particles - a combination of experimental and simulation approaches

In this project, self-assembly behaviour of colloidal particles was investigated by a combination of both computer simulations and experimental approach. In particular, a Brownian Dynamics algorithm was used to simulate either steep-repulsive spheres or spherocylinders in a shrinking spherical confinement. In accordance with literature, in the former case packed spheres were shown to crystallize into a distinctive icosahedral structure. In the latter study, spherocylinders clearly revealed a local tendency to form smectic layers. After the synthesis of micro-sized fluorescent-labelled silica spheres and rods, particle self-assembly in a spherical confinement was experimentally explored. While our selected method widely produced well-defined spherical supraparticles, it generally failed in inducing crystalline or liquid-crystalline ordering. This outcome was supposed to emerge due to fast compression of particles inside the confinement. In the last part of the project, Brownian Dynamics simulations of mixtures of rods and spheres in a spherical confinement were performed. Our preliminary investigation unveiled a modest tendency for rod-rich mixtures to form a binary smectic configuration. However, same-shape phase separation prominently occurred for increasing fractions of spheres. Notably, a quantitative analysis on the simulated configurations was accomplished by introduction of a novel binary smectic local order parameter.