Stuctural Transitions of Solvent-free Oligomer-grafted Nanoparticles
Novel structural transitions of solvent-free oligomer-grafted nanoparticles are investigated by using molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model. Variations in core size and grafting density lead to self-assembly of the nanoparticles into a variety of distinct structures. At the boundaries between different structures, the nanoparticle systems undergo thermoreversible transitions. This structural behavior, which has not been previously reported, deviates significantly from that of simple liquids. The reversible nature of these transitions in solvent-free conditions offers new ways to control self-assembly of nanoparticles at experimentally accessible conditions.
model used in this work and D. Koch, H.-Y. Yu, and
S. Kumar for helpful discussions. This Letter is based on
work supported by Grant No. KUS-C1-018-02 made by
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and
by Grant No. CBET-1033155 from the U.S. National
Science Foundation