Self-assembly of three-legged patchy particles into polyhedral cages

Otter den, Wouter K. and Renes, Marten R. and Briels, W.J. (2010) Self-assembly of three-legged patchy particles into polyhedral cages. Journal of Physics: Condensed matter, 22 (10). p. 104103. ISSN 0953-8984

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Abstract:	The self-assembly of rigid three-legged building blocks into polyhedral cages is investigated by patchy particle simulations. A four-site anisotropic interaction potential is introduced to make pairs of overlapping legs bind in an anti-parallel fashion, thereby forming the edges of a polyhedron of pentagons and hexagons. A torsional potential, reflecting an asymmetry or polarity in the legs' binding potential, proves crucial for the successful formation of closed fullerene-like cages. Self-assembly proceeds by a nucleation-and-growth mechanism, with a high success rate of cage closure. The size distribution of the self-assembled buckyballs is largely determined by the pucker angle of the particle. Nature explores a similar building block, the clathrin triskelion, to regulate vesicle formation at the cell membrane during endocytosis.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© IOP Publishing 2010
Faculty:	Science and Technology (TNW)
Research Group:	Computational Biophysics (CBP)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/73013
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/22/10/104103
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