Nathan Horst

Prediction of binary nanoparticle superlattices from soft potentials

Driven by the hypothesis that a sufficiently continuous short-ranged potential is able to account for shell flexibility and phonon modes and therefore provides a more realistic description of nanoparticle interactions than a hard sphere model, we compute the solid phase diagram of particles of different radii interacting with an inverse power law potential. From a pool of 24 candidate lattices, the free energy is optimized with respect to additional internal parameters and the p-exponent, determining the short-range properties of the potential, is varied between p = 12 and p = 6. The phase diagrams contain the phases found in ongoing self-assembly experiments, including DNA programmable self-assembly and nanoparticles with capping ligands assembled by evaporation from an organic solvent. The resulting phase diagrams can be mapped quantitatively to existing experiments as a function of only two parameters: Nanoparticle radius ratio (γ) and softness asymmetry.

Capping Ligand Vortices as “Atomic Orbitals” in Nanocrystal Self-Assembly

We present a detailed analysis of the interaction between two nanocrystals capped with ligands consisting of hydrocarbon chains by united atom molecular dynamics simulations. We show that the bonding of two nanocrystals is characterized by ligand textures in the form of vortices. These results are generalized to nanocrystals of different types (differing core and ligand sizes) where the structure of the vortices depends on the softness asymmetry. We provide rigorous calculations for the binding free energy, show that these energies are independent of the chemical composition of the cores, and derive analytical formulas for the equilibrium separation. We discuss the implications of our results for the self-assembly of single-component and binary nanoparticle superlattices. Overall, our results show that the structure of the ligands completely determines the bonding of nanocrystals, fully supporting the predictions of the recently proposed Orbifold topological model.

Potential of mean force for two nanocrystals: Core geometry and size, hydrocarbon unsaturation, and universality with respect to the force field

We present a detailed analysis of the interaction between two nanocrystals capped with ligands consisting of hydrocarbon chains by united atom molecular dynamics simulations. We analyze large cores (up to 10 nm in diameter) and ligands with unsaturated carbon bonds (oleic acid) and we investigate the accuracy of the computed potential of mean force by comparing different force fields. We also analyze the vortices that determine the bonding, including the case of asymmetric nanocrystals, and discuss effects related to the intrinsic anisotropy of the core. Overall our results are in agreement with the predictions of the recently proposed orbifold topological model.