Department of Chemistry

portrait of Professor Daan Frenkel ForMemRS

Professor Daan Frenkel ForMemRS

Trinity College

Groups: Frenkel group website, Theory

Telephone: 01223 336376
             01223 336341

E-mail: df246@cam.ac.uk

The research in my research group focuses on the numerical exploration of routes to design novel, self-assembling structures and materials. In particular, I am interested in the possibilities that bio-molecular recognition and motor action offer to create complex, nano-structured materials.

The main aspects of the research are

  • Develop novel Monte Carlo techniques to predict the thermodynamic stability of complex structures (e.g. DNA-coated colloids – fig 1).
  • Explore novel dynamical simulation techniques to predict the rate at which novel structures form from a meta-stable parent phase (e.g. crystal nucleation – fig 2).
  • Quantify the disorder in granular packings.
  • Coarse-grained models for molecular motors.

Fig.1. Snapshot of condensation of a low-density (left) to high-density (right) system of colloids (shown as red and green spheres) linked by DNA coils (shown as small spheres in left snapshot).

  

Fig.2. Heterogeneous crystal nucleation on disordered substrates is facilitated by wetting and capillary condensation.

Publications

Lattice-based Monte Carlo method for telechelic chain molecules
B Bozorgui, D Frenkel - Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys (2007) 75, 036708
(DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.75.036708)
Monte Carlo study of substrate-induced folding and refolding of lattice proteins
I Coluzza, D Frenkel - Biophys J (2007) 92, 1150
(DOI: 10.1529/biophysj.106.084236)
Protein shape and crowding drive domain formation and curvature in photosynthetic membranes
R Frese, J Olsen, N Hunter, D Frenkel, T Aartsma, R van Grondelle - PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESEARCH (2007) 91, 214
Simple off-lattice model to study the folding and aggregation of peptides
N Combe, D Frenkel - Molecular Physics (2007) 105, 375
(DOI: 10.1080/00268970601175483)
Depletion interaction between proteins drives the formation of protein domains of different fluidity and curvature in crowded membranes.
RN Frese, JC Pamies, TJ Aartsma, D Frenkel, R van Grondelle - BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL (2007), 221A
Comparison of simple perturbation-theory estimates for the liquid-solid and the liquid-vapor interfacial free energies of Lennard-Jones systems
C Valeriani, ZJ Wang, D Frenkel - Molecular Simulation (2007) 33, 1023
(DOI: 10.1080/08927020701579352)
A finite-cluster phase in λ-DNA-coated colloids
T Schmatko, B Bozorgui, N Geerts, D Frenkel, E Eiser, WCK Poon - Soft Matter (2007) 3, 703
(DOI: 10.1039/b618028k)
Application of the optimized Baxter model to the hard-core attractive Yukawa system
P Prinsen, JC Pamies, T Odijk, D Frenkel - The Journal of Chemical Physics (2006) 125, 194506
(DOI: 10.1063/1.2390699)
Materials science. Colloidal encounters: a matter of attraction.
D Frenkel - Science (2006) 314, 768
(DOI: 10.1126/science.1135544)
Physical chemistry - Seeds of phase change
D Frenkel - Nature (2006) 443, 641
(DOI: 10.1038/443641a)


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