Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: We report theoretical and numerical evaluations of the phase diagram for patchy colloidal particles of new generation. We show that the reduction of the number of bonded nearest neighbors offers the possibility of generating liquid states (i.e., states with temperature T lower than the liquid-gas critical temperature) with a vanishing occupied packing fraction (phi), a case which can not be realized with spherically interacting particles. Theoretical results suggest that such reduction is accompanied by an increase of the region of stability of the liquid phase in the (T-phi) plane, possibly favoring the establishment of homogeneous disordered materials at small phi, i.e., stable equilibrium gels.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Institution: Sapienza University of Rome
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2154617795