Abstract:
Nanoscale self-assembly arises from and is highly sensitive to interactions among the assembling components as well as interactions between them and their environment. Environmental complexities, such as spatial and temporal heterogeneities, are ubiquitous in self-assembling biological systems and materials processing protocols, yet our understanding of how they influence the assembly process remains limited. Our group uses numerical simulations to investigate how particles self-organize within these complex environments. Specifically, this talk will describe our investigations into the emergence of sequence-influencing assemblies of nascent oligomers during step-growth copolymerizations and the self-assembly of viral capsid-like structures within oscillatory environments.