Surfaro Furio, Zhang Fajun, Schreiber Frank, Roth Roland
Institute of Applied Physics, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
J Chem Phys. 2024 Jul 21;161(3). doi: 10.1063/5.0215920.
Patchy particles are an intriguing subject of study and indeed a model system in the field of soft matter physics. In recent years, patchy particle models have been applied to describe a wide variety of systems, including colloidal crystals, macromolecular interactions, liquid crystals, and nanoparticle assemblies. Given the importance of the topic, rationalizing and capturing the basic features of these models is crucial to their correct application in specific systems. In this study, we extend the ion-activated attractive patchy particles model previously employed to elucidate the phase behavior of protein solutions in the presence of trivalent salts. Our extension incorporates the effect of repulsion between unoccupied and occupied binding sites, depicted as patches. Furthermore, we examine the influence of model parameters on the liquid-vapor coexistence region within the phase diagram, employing numerical methods. A deeper understanding of this model will facilitate a better comprehension of the effects observed in experiments.
补丁粒子是一个引人入胜的研究课题，实际上也是软物质物理领域的一个模型系统。近年来，补丁粒子模型已被用于描述各种各样的系统，包括胶体晶体、大分子相互作用、液晶和纳米粒子组装体。鉴于该主题的重要性，合理化并捕捉这些模型的基本特征对于它们在特定系统中的正确应用至关重要。在本研究中，我们扩展了先前用于阐明三价盐存在下蛋白质溶液相行为的离子激活吸引性补丁粒子模型。我们的扩展纳入了未占据和已占据结合位点（表示为补丁）之间的排斥作用。此外，我们采用数值方法研究了模型参数对相图中液 - 气共存区域的影响。对该模型的更深入理解将有助于更好地理解实验中观察到的效应。
