We consider a novel class of patchy colloids which are characeterized by inhomogeneous charge distributions (patches) in their interior or on their surfaces. Physical examples are, e.g., proteins, viral capsids or colloidal-polyelectrolyte complexes, whose morphology is experimentally tunable. In contrast to convensional patchy colloids, the patches of the inverse patchy colloids (IPC's) attract the unpatched regions and repel the patch regions of their counterparts. By solving analytically the Debye-Hueckel approximation, we first calculate the anisotropic interaction potential between two IPC's in explicit form and then we perform a mapping onto a computationally much simpler model. We employ this model to study the self-assembly scenarios of IPC's under geometrical confinement and we establish the importance of the physical parameters leading to the formation of two distinct aggregate states: a disordered gel and a microcrystalline gel.Work performed in collaboration with Emanuela Bianchi and Gerhard Kahl (Technical University of Vienna).

Inverse patchy colloids: From coarse-graining to self-assembly

246th National Meeting (2013)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.