title: Supracolloidal helices from soft Janus particles by tuning the particle softness.
abstract: Because of the unique architectures and promising potential applications of biomimetic helical structures in biotechnology and nanotechnology, the design and fabrication of these structures by experimentally realizable anisotropic colloidal particles remain one of the most challenging tasks in materials science. Here we show how soft Janus particles self-assemble into supracolloidal helices with distinctive structural characteristics, including single helices, double helices, and Bernal spirals, by appropriately tuning the particle softness. We further examine the kinetic mechanisms governing the formation of different helical structures by using particle-based dynamics simulations. Our results provide a new way for experimentally fabricating structure-controllable supracolloidal helices solely from the self-assembly of soft Janus particles.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China. zwli@ciac.ac.cn zysun@ciac.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Qing-Zhi
authors.initials: QZ
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China. zwli@ciac.ac.cn zysun@ciac.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhan-Wei
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, China.
authors.forename: Zhong-Yuan
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China. zwli@ciac.ac.cn zysun@ciac.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhao-Yan
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D008968:Molecular Conformation; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology