Frame-guided assembly from a theoretical perspective

Abstract: The molecular self-assembly of various structures such as micelles and vesicles has been the subject of comprehensive studies. Recently, a new approach to design these structures, the frame-guided assembly, has been developed to progress towards fabrics of predefined shape and size, following an initially provided frame of guiding elements. Here we study frame-guided assembly into a two-dimensional membrane via computer simulations, based on a single-bead coarse grained surfactant model in continuous space. In agreement with the experiment the assembly process already starts for surfactant concentrations below the critical micelle concentration. Furthermore, upon decreasing temperature the formation process gets more localized. Additionally, we consider a lattice gas model of the membrane plane including guiding elements where the particle concentration is varied via a chemical potential. It behaves similar to the continuous model and additionally allows the formulation of analytical mean-field predictions which provide a fundamental understanding of frame-guided assembly.