Related papers: Self-Assembly of Patchy Particles into Diamond Str…
The achievement of selectivity in the formation of cubic diamond is challenging due to the emergence of competing phases such as its hexagonal polymorph or clathrates possessing similar free energy. Although both polymorphs exhibit a…
We propose a new strategy for robust high-quality self-assembly of non-trivial periodic structures out of patchy particles, and investigate it with Brownian Dynamics (BD) simulations. Its first element is the use of specific patch-patch and…
The assembly of colloidal cubic diamond is a challenging process since the shape and interaction parameters and the thermodynamic conditions where this structure is stable are elusive. The simultaneous use of shape-anisotropic particles and…
The rapid progress in precisely designing the surface decoration of patchy colloidal particles offers a new, yet unexperienced freedom to create building entities for larger, more complex structures in soft matter systems. However, it is…
Patchy colloids are promising candidates for building blocks in directed self-assembly. To be successful the surface patterns need to both be simple enough to be synthesized, while feature-rich enough to cause the colloids to self-assemble…
Manipulating the way in which colloidal particles self-organise is a central challenge in the design of functional soft materials. Meeting this challenge requires the use of building blocks that interact with one another in a highly…
Photonic crystals, appealing for their ability to control light, are constructed by periodic regions of different dielectric constants. Yet, the structural holy grail in photonic materials, diamond, remains challenging to synthesize at the…
Model patchy particles have been shown to be able to form a wide variety of structures, including symmetric clusters, complex crystals and even two-dimensional quasicrystals. Here, we investigate whether we can design patchy particles that…
Interaction between dipolar forces, such as permanent magnets, generally leads to the formation of one-dimensional chains and rings. We investigated whether it was possible to let dipoles self-assemble into three-dimensional structures by…
Nanoparticles with "sticky patches" have long been proposed as building blocks for the self-assembly of complex structures. The synthetic realizability of such patchy particles, however, greatly lags behind predictions of patterns they…
We propose a general framework for solving inverse self-assembly problems, i.e. designing interactions between elementary units such that they assemble spontaneously into a predetermined structure. Our approach uses patchy particles as…
Computational methods for designing interactions between colloidal particles that induce self-assembly have received much attention for their promise to discover tailored materials. However, it often remains a challenge to translate…
Diamond particles have many interesting properties and possible applications. However, producing diamond particles with well-defined shapes at scale is challenging because diamonds are chemically inert and extremely hard. Here, we show air…
Open structures can display a number of unusual properties, including a negative Poisson's ratio, negative thermal expansion, and holographic elasticity, and have many interesting applications in engineering. However, it is a grand…
Colloidal self-assembly allows rational design of structures on the micrometer and submicrometer scale. One architecture that can generate complete 3D photonic band gaps is the diamond cubic lattice, which has remained difficult to realize…
One of the fundamental goals of nanotechnology is to exploit selective and directional interactions between molecules to design particles that self-assemble into desired structures, from capsids, to nano-clusters, to fully formed crystals…
Self-assembly of granular particles is of great interest in both applied and basic research. It is commonly observed that when randomly packed into a container, granular particles form disordered structures like glass. As the particles are…
The self-assembly of anisotropic patchy particles with triangular shape was studied by experiments and computer simulations. The colloidal particles were synthesized in a two-step seeded emulsion polymerization process, and consist of a…
We explore the use of templated self-assembly to facilitate the formation of complex target structures made from patchy particles. First, we consider the templating of high-symmetry shell structures around a spherical core particle. We find…
The self-assembly of colloidal diamond (CD) crystals is considered as one of the most coveted goals of nanotechnology, both from the technological and fundamental points of view. For applications, colloidal diamond is a photonic crystal…