Nataša Adžić, "The role of effective interactions in predicting the exotic states of soft matter"

by Dr Nataša Adžič (Institute of Physics, Belgrade)

Thursday 12 Sept 2024, 14:15 → 15:15 Europe/Ljubljana

Seminar room of physics (106) (IJS)

 

Studying static properties of colloidal suspensions is often a computationally expensive task due to their complex composition and interactions that appear at various length scales. Large macromolecules are surrounded by small solute particles and typically some other small components such as salt ions. One of the useful coarse-graining tools for studying self-organisation of macromolecules in solutions is the method of effective interactions. It is based on calculation of the effective Hamiltonian as a canonical trace over small degrees of freedom for the given fixed configuration of large ones [1]. The calculated effective interaction can be further employed in Monte Carlo simulations between effective point particles that mimic behaviour of large macromolecules. In that way a fast scan of their phase organisation can be obtained. In this talk we will see how this method applies to self-organisation of various all-DNA dendrimers, macromolecules composed solely of short segments of DNA chains [2,3,4].  

 

 

[1] R. Blaak, B. Capone, C. N. Likos, and L. Rovigatti, Accurate Coarse-Grained Potentials for Soft Matter Systems, in Computational Trends in Solvation and Transport in Liquids - Lecture Notes, IAS Series, Vol. 28, 2015.

[2] N. Adzic, C. Jochum, C. N. Likos, and E. Stiakakis, "Engineering Ultrasoft Interactions in Stiff All-DNA Dendrimers by Site-Specific Control of Scaffold Flexibility", Small 2023, 2308763 (2024).

[3] E. Stiakakis, N. Jung, N. Adzic, T. Balandin, E. Kentzinger, U. Rucker, R. Biehl, J. Dhont, U. Jonas, and C. N. Likos, "Self Assembling Cluster Crystals from DNA Based Dendritic Nanostructres", Nat. Commun. 12, 7167 (2021).

[4] N. Adzic, C. Jochum, E. Stiakakis, G. Kahl, C.N. Likos, “Self-organisation of planar and tripod-shaped DNA stars confined to the water-air interface”, in preparation for submission