Linked-colloidal Nanocrystal Gels

Gels assembled from solvent-dispersed nanocrystals are of interest for functional materials because they promise the opportunity to retain distinctive properties of individual nanocrystals combined with tunable, structure-dependent collective behavior. In this talk, I discuss how equilibrium considerations can help to guide assembly of nanocrystal gels with properties controlled microscopically by design of a molecular mediator and macroscopically via its concentration. This mode of control is compelling because it decouples nanocrystal synthesis and functionalization from the design of interactions that drive assembly

Excess-entropy scaling of dynamics for a confined fluid of dumbbell-shaped particles

We use molecular simulation to study the ability of excess entropy scaling relationships to describe the kinetic properties of a confined molecular system. We examine a model for a confined fluid consisting of dumbbell-shaped molecules that interact with atomistically detailed pore walls via a Lennard-Jones potential. We obtain kinetic, thermodynamic, and structural properties of the system at three wall-fluid interaction strengths and over a temperature range that includes sub-and super-critical conditions. Four dynamic properties are considered: translational and rotational diffusivities, a characteristic relaxation time for rotational motion, and a collective relaxation time stemming from analysis of the coherent intermediate scattering function. We carefully consider the reference state used to define the excess entropy of a confined fluid. Three ideal-gas reference states are considered, with the cases differentiated by the extent to which one-body spatial and orientational correlations are accounted for in the reference state. Our results indicate that a version of the excess entropy that includes information related to the one-body correlations in a confined fluid serves as the best scaling variable for dynamic properties. When adopting such a definition for the reference state, to a very good approximation, bulk and confined data for a specified dynamic property at a given temperature collapse onto a common curve when plotted against the excess entropy.National Science Foundation CBET-0828979Welch Foundation F-1696David and Lucile Packard FoundationChemical Engineerin