Version 1
: Received: 8 July 2024 / Approved: 9 July 2024 / Online: 10 July 2024 (04:15:20 CEST)
How to cite:
Bouzid, O.; Martínez-Fernández, D.; Herranz, M.; Karayiannis, N. C. Entropy-Driven Crystallization of Hard Colloidal Mixtures of Polymers and Monomers. Preprints2024, 2024070786. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0786.v1
Bouzid, O.; Martínez-Fernández, D.; Herranz, M.; Karayiannis, N. C. Entropy-Driven Crystallization of Hard Colloidal Mixtures of Polymers and Monomers. Preprints 2024, 2024070786. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0786.v1
Bouzid, O.; Martínez-Fernández, D.; Herranz, M.; Karayiannis, N. C. Entropy-Driven Crystallization of Hard Colloidal Mixtures of Polymers and Monomers. Preprints2024, 2024070786. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0786.v1
APA Style
Bouzid, O., Martínez-Fernández, D., Herranz, M., & Karayiannis, N. C. (2024). Entropy-Driven Crystallization of Hard Colloidal Mixtures of Polymers and Monomers. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0786.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Bouzid, O., Miguel Herranz and Nikos Ch. Karayiannis. 2024 "Entropy-Driven Crystallization of Hard Colloidal Mixtures of Polymers and Monomers" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0786.v1
Abstract
The self-assembly is an intriguing process of great importance in general soft matter and thus re-ceives an ever-growing scientific interest. Its most trivial example is the entropy-driven crystalli-zation of hard spheres. Past works have established the similarities and differences in the phase behavior of monomers and chains made of hard spheres. In the present work, inspired by the dif-ference in the melting points of the pure components, we study, through Monte Carlo simulations, the phase behavior of athermal mixtures composed of fully flexible polymers and individual monomers of uniform size. We analyze how the relative number fraction and the packing density affect crystallization and the established ordered morphologies. A synergetic effect is observed in the crystallization leading to synchronous crystallization of the two species. Structural analysis of the resulting ordered morphologies shows perfect mixing and thus no phase separation, which could split the system into polymer-rich and monomer-rich domains. Due to the constraints imposed by chain connectivity, the local environment of the individual spheres is systematically more spherical and more symmetric compared to the one of spheres belonging to chains. In general, increasing polymer content leads to reduction of the degree of crystallinity. According to the present findings, relative concentration is another determining factor to control the phase behavior of hard colloidal systems based on polymers.
Keywords
Monte Carlo; Athermal Mixture; Crystallization; Entropy-driven Phase Transition; Colloids; Polymer; Face Centered Cubic; Hexagonal Close Packed, Molecular Simulation; Dense Packing; Hard Sphere
Subject
Chemistry and Materials Science, Physical Chemistry
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
