Common Physical Framework Explains Phase Behavior and Dynamics of Atomic, Molecular, and Polymeric Network Formers

Whitelam, Stephen; Tamblyn, Isaac; Haxton, Thomas K.; Wieland, Maria B.; Champness, Neil R.; Garrahan, Juan P.; Beton, Peter H.

Abstract

We show that the self-assembly of a diverse collection of building blocks can be understood within a common physical framework. These building blocks, which form periodic honeycomb networks and nonperiodic variants thereof, range in size from atoms to micron-scale polymers and interact through mechanisms as different as hydrogen bonds and covalent forces. A combination of statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics shows that one can capture the physics that governs the assembly of these networks by resolving only the geometry and strength of building-block interactions. The resulting framework reproduces a broad range of phenomena seen experimentally, including periodic and nonperiodic networks in thermal equilibrium, and nonperiodic supercooled and glassy networks away from equilibrium. Our results show how simple "design criteria" control the assembly of a wide variety of networks and suggest that kinetic trapping can be a useful way of making functional assemblies.

Citation

Whitelam, S., Tamblyn, I., Haxton, T. K., Wieland, M. B., Champness, N. R., Garrahan, J. P., & Beton, P. H. (2014). Common Physical Framework Explains Phase Behavior and Dynamics of Atomic, Molecular, and Polymeric Network Formers. Physical Review X, 4(1), Article 011044. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.011044

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 21, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Mar 21, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Feb 15, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 15, 2016
• Journal: Physical Review X
• Electronic ISSN: 2160-3308
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 011044
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.011044
• Keywords: Interdisciplinary Physics, Soft Matter, Statistical Physics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1000084
• Publisher URL: http://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.011044