We study the relation between the chirality of a discotic mesogen and that of the chiral columnar aggregates that they can spontaneously form by self– assembly. We discuss first the different types of chiral columns that can be in principle obtained. We introduce then a simple two–site Gay–Berne dissymmetric molecular model where chirality can be easily varied and perform extensive NPT Monte Ca...

solar cells, [ 4 ] and photonic crystals, [ 5 ] 2D hexagonal structures and 3D inverted opal (IO) structures have recently been intensively studied. In order to fabricate uniform IO structures consisting of regular arrangements of spherical void spaces surrounded by solid walls, 2D and 3D colloidal crystals consisting of a regular arrangement of uniform spherical particles are required. To date...

The mechanisms leading to the deposition of colloidal particles in a copper-gold galvanic microreactor are investigated. Using in situ current density measurements and particle velocimetry, we establish correlations between the spatial arrangement and the geometry of the electrodes, current density distribution, and particle aggregation behavior. Ionic transport phenomena are responsible for th...

Engineering the interface between different components of heterogeneous catalysts at nanometer level can radically alter their performances. This is particularly true for ceria-based catalysts where the interactions are critical for obtaining materials with enhanced properties. Here we show that mechanical contact achieved by high-energy milling of CeO2-ZrO2 powders and carbon soot results in t...

Multicomponent crystals and nanoparticle superlattices are a powerful approach to integrate different materials into ordered nanostructures. Well-developed, especially DNA-based, methods for their preparation exist, yet most techniques concentrate on molecular and synthetic nanoparticle systems in non-biocompatible environment. Here we describe the self-assembly and characterization of binary s...

We report the synthesis of morphological uniform composites using miniemulsions of poly(tert-butyl acrylate) or poly(styrene) containing organically capped gold nanocrystals (NCs). The optical features of such hybrid structures are dominated by plasmonic effects and depend critically on the morphology of the resulting nanocomposite. In particular, we demonstrate the ability to tune the overall ...

The spectral density representation of Bergman [Ann. Phys. 138 (1982) 78] is applied to measurements of bulk permittivity on a composite system with various levels of filler concentration, in order to extract structural information such as shape and spatial arrangement of the filler particles. The composites are paraffin wax filled with metal-coated hollow glass micro-spheres. The inclusions ha...

Granular material such as clean sand in geotechnical engineering is characterized by structured internal deformation pattern and some interesting particle arrangement patterns. This study focuses on the evolution of fraction rattling particles deviator until critical state. Numerical simulations using discrete element method reveal presence (with zero or only one contact with neighbouring parti...

Heat transfer by electromagnetic radiation is one of the common methods of energy transfer between objects. Using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we have studied the effect of particle arrangement in the transmission of radiative heat in many-body systems. In order to show the effect of the structure morphology on the collective properties, the radiative heat transfer is studied and the re...