Related papers: Layer-by-layer assembly of patchy particles as a r…
Fabrication of diamond structures by self-assembly is a fundamental challenge in making three-dimensional photonic crystals. We simulate a system of model hard particles with attractive patches and show that they can self-assemble into a…
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…
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…
We report Monte Carlo simulations of a simple off-lattice patchy-particle model for DNA `bricks'. We relate the parameters that characterise this model with the binding free energy of pairs of single-stranded DNA molecules. We verify that…
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…
Most binary superlattices created using DNA functionalization or other approaches rely on particle size differences to achieve compositional order and structural diversity. Here we study two-dimensional (2D) assembly of DNA-functionalized…
DNA-coated particles are promising as building blocks for functional and finite-sized assemblies because they can be programmed with orthogonal interactions owing to the sequence-specific hybridization of DNA strands. To fully exploit this…
We study theoretically a binary system in which an attraction of unlike particles is combined with a type-independent soft core repulsion. The possible experimental implementation of the system is a mixture of DNA-covered colloids, in which…
A major goal in nanoscience and nanotechnology is the self-assembly of any desired complex structure with a system of particles interacting through simple potentials. To achieve this objective, intense experimental and theoretical efforts…
The field of complex self-assembly is moving toward the design of multi-particle structures consisting of thousands of distinct building blocks. To exploit the potential benefits of structures with such `addressable complexity,' we need to…
We design a system with a binary suspension of colloids and a surface that triggers the self-assembly of crystallites with a finite thickness. The proposed design allows controlling the number of layers forming the aggregate and constrains…
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…
The self-assembly of binary nanoparticle superlattices from colloidal mixtures is a promising method for the fabrication of complex colloidal co-crystal structures. However, binary mixtures often form amorphous or metastable phases instead…
At the cutting edge of materials science, matter is designed to self-organize into structures that perform a wide range of functions. The past two decades have witnessed major innovations in the versatility of building blocks, ranging from…
Direct design of complex functional materials would revolutionize technologies ranging from printable organs to novel clean energy devices. However, even incremental steps towards designing functional materials have proven challenging. If…
One of the challenges of self-assembling finite-sized colloidal aggregates with a sought morphology is the necessity of precisely sorting the position of the colloids at the microscopic scale to avoid the formation of off-target structures.…
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…
DNA-coated colloids can crystallize into a multitude of lattices, ranging from face-centered cubic to diamond and thereby contribute to our understanding of crystallization and open avenues to producing structures with useful photonic…
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…
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…