Tiling a tubule: how increasing complexity improves the yield of self-limited assembly.

ABSTRACT: The ability to design and synthesize ever more complicated colloidal particles opens the possibility of self-assembling a zoo of complex structures, including those with one or more self-limited length scales. An undesirable feature of systems with self-limited length scales is that thermal fluctuations can lead to the assembly of nearby, off-target states. We investigate strategies for limiting off-target assembly by using multiple types of subunits. Using simulations and energetics calculations, we explore this concept by considering the assembly of tubules built from triangular subunits that bind edge to edge. While in principle, a single type of triangle can assemble into tubules with a monodisperse width distribution, in practice, the finite bending rigidity of the binding sites leads

SUBMITTER: Videbæk TE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8857047 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature