Droplet clusters: exploring the phase space of soft mesoscale atoms

Droplet clusters: exploring the phase space of soft mesoscale atoms

We report three-dimensional structures--mesoscale "atoms"--comprising up to N=8 aqueous droplets compressed in a liquid shell. In contrast to hard colloids that self-assemble into structures unique for a given N, we observe multiple metastable states. We attribute this unexpected richness...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters Vol. 114; no. 18; p. 188302
Main Authors: Guzowski, Jan, Garstecki, Piotr
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States 08-05-2015
Subjects:
Clusters
Company structure
Compressed
Droplets
Liquids
Mathematical analysis
Mesoscale phenomena
Three dimensional
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Summary:We report three-dimensional structures--mesoscale "atoms"--comprising up to N=8 aqueous droplets compressed in a liquid shell. In contrast to hard colloids that self-assemble into structures unique for a given N, we observe multiple metastable states. We attribute this unexpected richness of metastable structures to the deformability of the cores that introduces irreducible many-body interactions between the droplets. These exotic, often highly anisotropic, structures are locally stable. The structures displaying highly nonoptimum packing-and hence interfacial energy much higher than that of the lowest-energy state-exhibit finite energy barriers that prevent restructuring and relaxation of energy.
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ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.114.188302