Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
Soft Matter. 2018 May 23;14(20):4101-4109. doi: 10.1039/c8sm00315g.
Both ordered and disordered microphases ubiquitously form in suspensions of particles that interact through competing short-range attraction and long-range repulsion (SALR). While ordered microphases are more appealing materials targets, understanding the rich structural and dynamical properties of their disordered counterparts is essential to controlling their mesoscale assembly. Here, we study the disordered regime of a one-dimensional (1D) SALR model, whose simplicity enables detailed analysis by transfer matrices and Monte Carlo simulations. We first characterize the signature of the clustering process on macroscopic observables, and then assess the equilibration dynamics of various simulation algorithms. We notably find that cluster moves markedly accelerate the mixing time, but that event chains are of limited help in the clustering regime. These insights will inspire further study of three-dimensional microphase formers.
在通过短程吸引力和长程斥力（SALR）相互作用的粒子悬浮液中，有序和无序微相普遍形成。虽然有序微相更具吸引力的材料目标，但了解其无序对应物的丰富结构和动力学特性对于控制其介观组装至关重要。在这里，我们研究了一维（1D）SALR 模型的无序状态，其简单性通过转移矩阵和蒙特卡罗模拟进行了详细分析。我们首先在宏观观测中描述了聚类过程的特征，然后评估了各种模拟算法的平衡动力学。我们特别发现，簇移动明显加速了混合时间，但在聚类状态下，事件链的帮助有限。这些见解将激发对三维微相形成物的进一步研究。
