Programming patchy particles to form three-dimensional dodecagonal quasicrystals

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the design of patchy particles capable of forming three-dimensional dodecagonal quasicrystals through annealing simulations, introducing two novel particle designs with potential experimental realizability.

Contribution

It introduces two new patchy particle designs that can form 3D dodecagonal quasicrystals, advancing the design of self-assembling quasicrystalline materials.

Findings

Two particle designs successfully form dodecagonal quasicrystals in simulations.

The first design often contains screw dislocations in the resulting quasicrystals.

The second design, a ternary system, is more feasible for experimental realization.

Abstract

Model patchy particles have been shown to be able to form a wide variety of structures, including symmetric clusters, complex crystals and even two-dimensional quasicrystals. Here, we investigate whether we can design patchy particles that form three-dimensional quasicrystals, in particular targeting a quasicrystal with dodecagonal symmetry that is made up of stacks of two-dimensional quasicrystalline layers. We obtain two designs that are able to form such a dodecagonal quasicrystal in annealing simulations. The first is a one-component system of 7-patch particles but with wide patches that allow them to adopt both 7- and 8-coordinated environments. The second is a ternary system that contains a mixture of 7- and 8-patch particles, and is likely to be more realizable in experiments, for example, using DNA origami. One interesting feature of the first system is that the resulting quasicrystals very often contain a screw dislocation.