Fully solvable equilibrium self-assembly process: fine-tuning the clusters size and the connectivity in patchy particle systems.
Self-assembly is the mechanism that controls the formation of well-defined structures from disordered pre-existing parts. Despite the importance of self-assembly as a manufacturing method and the increasingly large number of experimental realizations of complex self-assembled nano-aggregates, theoretical predictions are lagging behind. Here, we show that for a nontrivial self-assembly phenomenon, originating branched loopless clusters, it is possible to derive a fully predictive parameter-free theory of equilibrium self-assembly by combining the Wertheim theory for associating liquids with the Flory-Stockmayer approach for chemical gelation.
Bianchi
Emanuela
E
Dipartimento di Fisica and INFM-CNR-SMC, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Piazzale A Moro 2, 00185, Roma, Italy.
Tartaglia
Piero
P
La  Nave
Emilia
E
Sciortino
Francesco
F