was used for modeling attractive interactions between the cores. The excluded volume interactions between NP cores and polymer beads were also treated using an expanded WCA potential which can be cast as 𝑈 LM &𝑟 -𝑟 OP ; 𝜎, 𝜀, 𝑟 G = 2 4/F 𝜎), where 𝑟 is the distance between the center of the NP core and the polymer bead, and 𝑟 OP ≡ 𝑅 ?@ -𝜎/2 is a distance shift that prevents polymer beads from penetrating the NP core.