Phase diagram of patchy colloids: towards empty liquids.
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.
Bianchi
Emanuela
E
Dipartimento di Fisica and CNR-INFM-SMC, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Piazzale A Moro 2, Roma, Italy.
Largo
Julio
J
Tartaglia
Piero
P
Zaccarelli
Emanuela
E
Sciortino
Francesco
F
D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D013816:Thermodynamics
D003102:Colloids