The equilibrium structure of small self-assembled nano-shells

Highly symmetric nano-shells are found in many biological systems, such as clathrin cages and viral shells and is a rapidly developing area of materials science. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we study the spontaneous assembly of protein shells composed of several identical subunits under equilibrium conditions. We construct a phase diagram to investigate the impact of the spontaneous curvature and mechanical properties of protein subunits on the size and geometry of the assembly products.