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Janus fluid with fixed patch orientations: Theory and simulations

2013; American Institute of Physics; Volume: 138; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1063/1.4793626

1520-9032

Miguel Ángel G. Maestre, Riccardo Fantoni, Achille Giacometti, Andrés Santos,

Surfactants and Colloidal Systems

We study thermophysical properties of a Janus fluid with constrained orientations, using analytical techniques and numerical simulations. The Janus character is modeled by means of a Kern–Frenkel potential where each sphere has one hemisphere of square-well and the other of hard-sphere character. The orientational constraint is enforced by assuming that each hemisphere can only point either North or South with equal probability. The analytical approach hinges on a mapping of the above Janus fluid onto a binary mixture interacting via a “quasi” isotropic potential. The anisotropic nature of the original Kern–Frenkel potential is reflected by the asymmetry in the interactions occurring between the unlike components of the mixture. A rational-function approximation extending the corresponding symmetric case is obtained in the sticky limit, where the square-well becomes infinitely narrow and deep, and allows a fully analytical approach. Notwithstanding the rather drastic approximations in the analytical theory, this is shown to provide a rather precise estimate of the structural and thermodynamical properties of the original Janus fluid.