The role of shape in the self-assembly of polymer-grafted nanoparticles.

Traditionally, self-assembled structures are formed using chemical differences within a species.  Examples of this are the formation of micelles by detergents, and the formation of the phospholipid bilayer of the cell membrane.  In these systems it is the tendency to the hydrophobic and hydrophilic part to avoid each other that result in the self-assembled state.  However, a recent study (http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2017/sm/c7sm00230k) has pointed out that it is possible to form self-assembled states without any chemical differences.  Rather, it is possible to form such structured, self-assembled states simply due to the shape of the species.  In this study we will study how the shape of species can influence their self-assembly.  The project is theorectical, but an elementary knowledge of coding will suffice.