The physics of Empty Liquids: from Patchy particles to Water

TL;DR

This paper explores the connections between patchy particles and water, revealing how their modeling principles explain the unique thermodynamic, dynamic, and phase transition behaviors of empty liquids.

Contribution

It bridges the gap between colloidal patchy particles and water studies, providing new insights into the physical properties and phase behaviors of empty liquids.

Findings

Patchy particle models can replicate water-like anomalies.

Empty liquids exhibit thermodynamic and dynamic anomalies similar to water.

Potential for liquid-liquid phase transitions and open crystalline structures.

Abstract

Empty liquids represent a wide class of materials whose constituents arrange in a random network through reversible bonds. Many key insights on the physical properties of empty liquids have originated almost independently from the study of colloidal patchy particles on one side, and a large body of theoretical and experimental research on water on the other side. Patchy particles represent a family of coarse-grained potentials that allows for a precise control of both the geometric and the energetic aspects of bonding, while water has arguably the most complex phase diagram of any pure substance, and a puzzling amorphous phase behavior. It was only recently that the exchange of ideas from both fields has made it possible to solve long-standing problems and shed new light on the behavior of empty liquids. Here we highlight the connections between patchy particles and water, focusing on the modelling principles that make an empty liquid behave like water, including the factors that control the appearance of thermodynamic and dynamic anomalies, the possibility of liquid-liquid phase transitions, and the crystallization of open crystalline structures.