Modelling non-equilibrium self-assembly from dissipation

Abstract

Non-equilibrium self-assembly is ubiquitous in physico-chemical and biological systems, and manifests itself at different scales, ranging from the molecular to the cosmological. The formation of microtubules, gels, cells and living beings among many others takes place through self-assembly under nonequilibrium conditions. We propose a general thermodynamic non-equilibrium model to understand the formation of assembled structures such as gels and Liesegang patterns and at the same time able to describe the kinetics and the energetics of the structure formation process. The model is supported for a global mechanism to obtain self-assembled structures from building blocks via activation, deactivation, assembly, and disassembly processes. It is proposed that the resulting structures can be characterised by a structural parameter. Our model may contribute to a better understanding of non-equilibrium self-assembly processes and give deeper insight as to how to obtain a specific structural architecture to materials, such as hydrogels which are of great importance in the design of advanced devices and novel materials.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Thermodynamics
• nonequilibrium process
• self-assembly
• structure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Nomenclature/Notation

NESA – Nonequilibrium self-aseembly / Nonequilibrium self-assembled.η – Structural parameter.Σ – Total entropy produced.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by MICINN of the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) under Grant No. PGC2018-098373-B-I00 and by the Agéncia de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca – Catalan Goverment under the Grant 2017-SGR-884. AAR acknowledges financial support through an APIF 2017-2018 scholarship from the University of Barcelona. Authors thanks PoreLab – Center of Excellence, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, for financial support.