Poster: Two-dimensional Nanoassemblies of Spherocylindrical Nanoparticles inside Lipid Vesicles

Using molecular dynamics of a coarse-grained implicit-solvent model, we demonstrate that liposomes can induce the self-assembly of uniform spherocylindrical nanoparticles (SCNPs) on the liposomes’ inner surface. The characteristics of these nanoassemblies are contingent upon the adhesion strength, leading to the formation of unique quasi-two-dimensional polygonal and star-like nanoclusters. Our simulations reveal that, under low adhesion strength, the adhering spherocylindrical nanoparticles remain diffusive inside the vesicle. As the adhesion strength increases, the SCNPs assemble to form a regular polygonal geometry. The SCNPs self-assemble into interesting star-like nanocluster geometry as <!--[if gte msEquation 12]> style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>ξ i is further increased. The vesicles transform from a three-dimensional structure into a flattened two-dimensional geometry over a wide range of intermediate values of the adhesion strength. At high adhesion strengths, the SCNPs are exocytosed. Interestingly, the evolution of nanocluster geometries from three to two dimensions generates various polygonal and star-like geometries contingent on the nanoparticle count. Free energy calculations based on the Helfrich Hamiltonian are used to assess the stability of the various observed nanoassemblies.