On the stability of Archimedean tilings formed by patchy particles.

We have investigated the possibility of decorating, using a bottom-up strategy, patchy particles in such a way that they self-assemble in (two-dimensional) Archimedean tilings. Except for the trihexagonal tiling, we have identified conditions under which this is indeed possible. The more compact tilings, i.e., the elongated triangular and the snub square tilings (which are built up by triangles and squares only) are found to be stable up to intermediate pressure values in the vertex representation, i.e., where the tiling is decorated with particles at its vertices. The other tilings, which are built up by rather large hexagons, octagons and dodecagons, are stable over a relatively large pressure range in the centre representation where the particles occupy the centres of the polygonal units.