Double diamond phase in pear-shaped nanoparticle systems with hard sphere solvent

Computer simulations of hard pear-shaped particles.

We report results obtained from Monte Carlo simulations investigating mesophase formation in two model systems of hard pear-shaped particles. The first model considered is a hard variant of the truncated Stone-expansion model previously shown to form nematic and smectic mesophases when embedded within a 12-6 Gay-Berne-like potential [R. Berardi, M. Ricci, and C. Zannoni, ChemPhysChem 7, 443 (20...

Phase Transition for a Hard Sphere System

Metastability and Crystallization in Hard-Sphere Systems.

We present results of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of hard sphere systems at values of the volume fraction f along the disordered, metastable branch of the phase diagram up to random closepacking fc. By quantifying the degree of local order, we determine the necessary conditions to obtain a truly random system, enabling us to compute the pressure carefully along the entire metasta...

Phase diagram of hard snowman-shaped particles.

We present the phase diagram of hard snowman-shaped particles calculated using Monte Carlo simulations and free energy calculations. The snowman particles consist of two hard spheres rigidly attached at their surfaces. We find a rich phase behavior with isotropic, plastic crystal, and aperiodic crystal phases. The crystalline phases found to be stable for a given sphere diameter ratio correspon...

Pear shaped: responding to adversity.

I went home from my study group and I thought I’d write a song A light hearted little anecdote to carry us along A humorous look at training and the eportfolio Just how do we get our trainees to learn all the things we know? But events that followed after came and stopped me in my tracks And our talks of authenticity had me thinking back Life isn’t always funny when we’re in the here and now An...