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Self-assembly of nanoparticles can enable composites with pre-designed properties but remains challenged by reproducing structural diversity of atomic and molecular crystals. We combine anisotropic elastic and weakly screened electrostatic…
Magnetic remote actuation of soft materials is attractive for applications such as transforming materials and medical robots. However, due to manufacturing limitations, microscale magnetoactive devices are scarce -- light-based additive…
Creating materials with structure that is independently controllable at a range of scales requires breaking naturally occurring hierarchies. Breaking these hierarchies can be achieved via the decoupling of building block attributes from…
Through the implementation of reconfigurability to achieve flexibility and adaptation to tasks by morphology changes rather than by increasing the number of joints, malleable robots present advantages over traditional serial robot arms in…
Physically intelligent micro-robotic systems exploit information embedded in micro-robots, their colloidal cargo, and their milieu to interact, assemble and form functional structures. Nonlinear anisotropic fluids like nematic liquid…
We synthesize colloidal particles with various anisotropic shapes and track their orientationally resolved Brownian trajectories using confocal microscopy. An analysis of appropriate short-time correlation functions provides direct access…
When we develop wearable assistive devices comfort and support are two main issues needed to be considered. In conventional design approaches, the degree of freedom of wearer's joint movement tends to be oversimplified. Accordingly, the…
Colloidal particles can spontaneously self-assemble into ordered structures, which not only can manipulate the propagation of light, but also vibration or phonons. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we study the self-assembly of perfectly…
Experiments have reached a monumental capacity for designing and synthesizing microscopic particles for self-assembly, making it possible to precisely control particle concentrations, shapes, and interactions. However, more physical insight…
Self-assembly of nanoscale synthetic subunits is a promising bottom-up strategy for fabrication of functional materials. Here, we introduce a design principle for DNA origami nanoparticles of 50-nm size, exploiting modularity, to make a…
Gold nanorods grafted with short chain polymers are assembled into controlled open structures using polymer-induced depletion interactions and structurally characterized using small angle x-ray scattering. When the nanorod diameter is…
Integration of active matter in larger micro-devices can provide an embedded source of propulsion and lead to self-actuated micromachining systems that do not rely on any external power or control apparatus. Here we demonstrate that Janus…
Colloidal gels are prime examples of functional materials exhibiting disordered, amorphous, yet meta-stable forms. They maintain stability through short-range attractive forces and their material properties are tunable by external forces.…
Particle shape is a critical parameter that plays an important role in self-assembly, for example, in designing targeted complex structures with desired properties. In the last decades an unprecedented range of monodisperse nanoparticle…
There is growing interest in functional, adaptive devices built from colloidal subunits of micron size or smaller. A colloidal material with dynamic mechanical properties could facilitate such microrobotic machines. Here we study via…
Humans possess a remarkable ability to react to unpredictable perturbations through immediate mechanical responses, which harness the visco-elastic properties of muscles to maintain balance. Inspired by this behaviour, we propose a novel…
The creation of disordered hyperuniform materials with potentially extraordinary optical properties requires a capacity to synthesize large samples that are effectively hyperuniform down to the nanoscale. Motivated by this challenge, we…
Inclusions dissolved in an anisotropic quasi-2D membrane acquire new types of interactions that can drive assembly of complex structures and patterns. We study colloidal membranes composed of a binary mixture of long and short rods, such…
Modular small-scale robots offer the potential for on-demand assembly and disassembly, enabling task-specific adaptation in dynamic and constrained environments. However, existing modular magnetic platforms often depend on workspace…
Colloidal lithography has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional nanofabrication techniques, offering the ability to create nanoscale patterns in a cost-effective and scalable manner. However, it has been so far limited by…