title: Self-assembly of Janus particles confined in a channel.
abstract: Janus particles present an important class of building blocks for directional assembly. These are compartmentalized colloids with two different hemispheres. Here, we consider a two-dimensional model of Janus disks consisting of a hydrophobic semicircle and an electro-negatively charged one. Placed in a solution, the hydrophobic sides will attract each other while the charged sides will give rise to a repulsive force. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study the morphology of these particles when confined in a channel-like environment using a one dimensional harmonic confinement potential. The interest to this system is first of all due to the fact that it could serve as a simple model for membrane formation. Indeed, the recently synthesized new class of artificial amphiphiles, known as Janus dendrimers, were shown to self-assemble in bilayer structures mimicking biological membranes. In turn, Janus particles that combine the amphiphilicity and colloidal rigidity serve as a good model for Janus dendrimers. A variety of ordered membrane-like morphologies are found consisting of single and multiple chain configurations with different orientations of the particles with respect to each other that we summarize in a phase diagram.
authors.affiliation: Departement Fysica, Universiteit Antwerpen, B-2020 Antwerpen, Belgium.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sobrino Fernández
authors.affiliation: Departement Fysica, Universiteit Antwerpen, B-2020 Antwerpen, Belgium.
authors.forename: V R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Misko
authors.affiliation: Departement Fysica, Universiteit Antwerpen, B-2020 Antwerpen, Belgium.
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Peeters