2007/03/14 by J. Largo, Julio Largo, P. Tartaglia +2 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis and Applications #Polymer Surface Interaction Studies #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #math.PR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.76.011402
4 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2007/03/14 · openalex publication_date 2007/07/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Theoretical studies of self-assembly processes and condensed phases in colloidal systems are often based on effective interparticle potentials. Here we show that developing an effective potential for particles interacting with a limited number of "lock-and-key" selective bonds (due to the specificity of biomolecular interactions) requires-in addition to the nonsphericity of the potential-a (many body) constraint that prevents multiple bonding on the same site. We show the importance of retaining both valence and bond selectivity by developing, as a case study, a simple effective potential describing the interaction between colloidal particles coated by four single-strand DNA chains.