Connectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid

We report a detailed computational study by Brownian Dynamics simulations of the structure and dynamics of a liquid of patchy particles which develops an amorphous tetrahedral network upon decreasing temperature. The highly directional particle interactions allows us to investigate the system connec...

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Main Authors: Rovigatti, L, Sciortino, F, Roldan-Vargas, S
Format: Journal article
Published: Royal Society of Chemistry 2016
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author Rovigatti, L
Sciortino, F
Roldan-Vargas, S
author_facet Rovigatti, L
Sciortino, F
Roldan-Vargas, S
author_sort Rovigatti, L
collection OXFORD
description We report a detailed computational study by Brownian Dynamics simulations of the structure and dynamics of a liquid of patchy particles which develops an amorphous tetrahedral network upon decreasing temperature. The highly directional particle interactions allows us to investigate the system connectivity by discriminating the total set of particles into different populations according to a penta-modal distribution of bonds per particle. With this methodology we show how the particle bonding process is not randomly independent but it manifests clear bond correlations at low temperatures. We further explore the dynamics of the system in real space and establish a clear relation between particle mobility and particle connectivity. In particular, we provide evidence of anomalous diffusion at low temperatures and reveal how the dynamics is affected by the short-time hopping motion of the weakly bounded particles. Finally we widely investigate the dynamics and structure of the system in Fourier space and identify two quantitatively similar length scales, one dynamic and the other one static, which increase upon cooling the system and reach distances of the order of few particle diameters. We summarize our findings in a qualitative picture where the low temperature regime of the viscoelastic liquid is understood in terms of an evolving network of long time metastable cooperative domains of particles.
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spelling oxford-uuid:538aa886-cbf4-4f51-b057-e7b4e72e73bf2022-03-26T16:32:21ZConnectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquidJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:538aa886-cbf4-4f51-b057-e7b4e72e73bfSymplectic Elements at OxfordRoyal Society of Chemistry2016Rovigatti, LSciortino, FRoldan-Vargas, SWe report a detailed computational study by Brownian Dynamics simulations of the structure and dynamics of a liquid of patchy particles which develops an amorphous tetrahedral network upon decreasing temperature. The highly directional particle interactions allows us to investigate the system connectivity by discriminating the total set of particles into different populations according to a penta-modal distribution of bonds per particle. With this methodology we show how the particle bonding process is not randomly independent but it manifests clear bond correlations at low temperatures. We further explore the dynamics of the system in real space and establish a clear relation between particle mobility and particle connectivity. In particular, we provide evidence of anomalous diffusion at low temperatures and reveal how the dynamics is affected by the short-time hopping motion of the weakly bounded particles. Finally we widely investigate the dynamics and structure of the system in Fourier space and identify two quantitatively similar length scales, one dynamic and the other one static, which increase upon cooling the system and reach distances of the order of few particle diameters. We summarize our findings in a qualitative picture where the low temperature regime of the viscoelastic liquid is understood in terms of an evolving network of long time metastable cooperative domains of particles.
spellingShingle Rovigatti, L
Sciortino, F
Roldan-Vargas, S
Connectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid
title Connectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid
title_full Connectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid
title_fullStr Connectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid
title_full_unstemmed Connectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid
title_short Connectivity, dynamics, and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid
title_sort connectivity dynamics and structure in a tetrahedral network liquid
work_keys_str_mv AT rovigattil connectivitydynamicsandstructureinatetrahedralnetworkliquid
AT sciortinof connectivitydynamicsandstructureinatetrahedralnetworkliquid
AT roldanvargass connectivitydynamicsandstructureinatetrahedralnetworkliquid