Influence of patch-size variability on the crystallization of tetrahedral patchy particles

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Sep 26;113(13):138303. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.138303. Epub 2014 Sep 25.

Abstract

The understanding of disorder effects on crystallization is of fundamental and technological importance. It is well established by both theory and experiment that particle-size polydispersity hinders crystallization for isotropically interacting particles. Here, we address the effects of patch variability in a model for tetrahedral colloids, where polydispersity is introduced independently on the size, position, and strength of the attractive patches. Our simulations indicate that, unlike particle-size polydispersity, angular polydispersity has a minor impact on the crystallization properties of tetrahedral colloidal particles. Particles with angular polydispersity well within current experimental possibilities fully retain their crystallization properties, a result which should encourage the realization of colloidal crystals in experiment.