Diffusion coefficients of linear trimer particles

Abstract

We study the diffusive behavior of linear trimer particles via numerical calculations. First, we utilize hydrodynamic bead-shell calculations to compute the microscopic diffusion coefficients for different particle aspect ratios. These values are then used to obtain continuous empirical formulas for said coefficients. As an application example for the empirical formulas, we perform Brownian dynamics simulations of monolayers consisting of a linear trimer surrounded by colloidal spheres. Here, we obtain empirical formulas for the corresponding long-time diffusion coefficients of the trimer. By comparing our data for the microscopic and long-time diffusion coefficients with known results for spherocylinders, we find that the diffusive behavior of both particle geometries is approximately identical. Based on this observation, we introduce simplified equations for the microscopic diffusion coefficients that can be used for arbitrary short rods that are spheres at the minimum aspect ratios. The calculated equations for the diffusion coefficients can be applied to various further numerical and experimental studies utilizing linear trimer particles.