The Role of Limited Valency and Bonding Orientation on Phase Behavior

Document
Document

Nanoparticles functionalized by single strands of DNA have been shown to be highly customizable building blocks for self-assembled nano-structures, giving rise to complex networks that have very unusual phase diagrams. Specifically, the nanoparticles exhibit a phase diagram which contains three critical points; the presence of two critical points is rare in nature, but has been found in some natural substances like water. In this thesis, we use lattice models to examine which nearest neighbor interactions are important to generate multiple distinct phases. We show that the multiple critical points cannot be reproduced via limiting the number of bonding neighbors alone. Development of more complex lattice models that may include such behavior based on our results is ongoing.

    Item Description
    Name(s)
    Thesis advisor: Starr, Francis W.
    Date
    May 01, 2008
    Extent
    51 pages
    Language
    eng
    Genre
    Physical Form
    electronic
    Discipline
    Rights and Use
    In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted
    Digital Collection
    PID
    ir:1470