Statistical study of a concentrated dispersion of deformable particles modelled as an assembly of cyclic lattice chains

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Abstract
The influence of particle deformability on the structural and thermodynamic properties of a dense colloidal system has been investigated by Monte Carlo simulation of a two-dimensional assembly of cyclic lattice chains. The statistical model exhibits variable polydispersity, with individual ‘sloppy’ particles having a character intermediate between conventional rigid particles on the one hand and polymer molecules on the other. Each deformable particle is a ‘necklace’ of identical segments, and its average size and shape in the dense system is determined by the magnitude of repulsive interactions between nonbonded segments, both intraparticle (on the same necklace) and interparticle (on different necklaces). Numerical results are presented for the radial distribution function as a function of the strengths of the intraparticle and interparticle intersegmental interactions. Using pressures calculated from the simulations by two new methods, the equation of state of the deformable particles is compared with that for hard discs and for linear lattice chains. The main structural effect of deformability, and its associated variable polydispersity, is to increase the disorder of the colloidal system as compared with the corresponding rigid particle system. Unlike hard discs at high packing fractions, we find no evidence for a stable ordered crystalline state of the cyclic lattice chains.

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