2006/05/31 by Emanuela Bianchi, J. Largo, Julio Largo +4 · 578 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic packing factor #Binodal #Chemistry #Colloid #Colloidal particle #Condensed matter physics #Diagram #Geometry #Homogeneous #Liquid phase #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials science #Mathematics #Phase (matter) #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics #Phase diagram #Physical chemistry #Physics #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Plane (geometry) #Quantum mechanics #Reduction (mathematics) #Stability (learning theory) #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.97.168301
published in Physical Review Letters 97(16), 168301 (American Physical Society) · 4 pages, 4 figures, revised version, accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett
arxiv created 2006/09/25 · openalex publication_date 2006/10/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report theoretical and numerical evaluations of the phase diagram for patchy colloidal particles of new generation. We show that the reduction of the number of bonded nearest neighbors offers the possibility of generating liquid states (i.e., states with temperature T lower than the liquid-gas critical temperature) with a vanishing occupied packing fraction (phi), a case which can not be realized with spherically interacting particles. Theoretical results suggest that such reduction is accompanied by an increase of the region of stability of the liquid phase in the (T-phi) plane, possibly favoring the establishment of homogeneous disordered materials at small phi, i.e., stable equilibrium gels.