A one-component patchy-particle icosahedral quasicrystal

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple one-component patchy-particle model capable of forming icosahedral quasicrystals with potential applications in photonics and material design, confirmed by simulations and higher-dimensional analysis.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that simple one-component patchy particles can self-assemble into face-centered icosahedral quasicrystals with quasiperiodic order, a novel finding in particle design.

Findings

Particles form interconnected icosahedral quasicrystals in simulations.

Quasicrystals are entropically stabilized by phason disorder.

Predicted to have an almost spherical photonic band gap.

Abstract

Designing particles that are able to form icosahedral quasicrystals (IQCs) and that are as simple as possible is not only of fundamental interest but is also important to the potential realization of IQCs in materials other than metallic alloys. Here we introduce one-component patchy-particle systems that in simulations are able to form face-centred IQCs that are made up of interconnected icosahedra. The directional bonding of the particles facilitates the formation of a network of bonds with icosahedral orientational order and hence quasiperiodic positional order. The assembled quasicrystals have similar energies to periodic approximants but are entropically stabilized by phason disorder. Their long-range quasiperiodic order is confirmed by a higher-dimensional analysis. These materials, which are predicted to have an almost spherical photonic band gap, can potentially be realized via protein design and DNA origami particles.