4.8 Article

Shape and interaction decoupling for colloidal preassembly

Journal

SCIENCE ADVANCES
Volume 8, Issue 21, Pages -

Publisher

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm0548

Keywords

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Funding

  1. Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) [680-47-446]
  2. Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes research grant
  3. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) [RGPIN-2019-05655, DGECR-2019-00469]
  4. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Grant [DGE 1256260]
  5. Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship
  6. National Science Foundation [OCI-0725070, ACI-1238993]
  7. state of Illinois
  8. Advanced Research Computing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

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Creating materials with independently controllable structures at multiple scales requires breaking naturally occurring hierarchies. This study demonstrates that shape and interaction decoupling can occur in colloidal cuboids, leading to the formation of preassembled mesoscale building blocks for larger-scale structures. The results highlight the potential of preassembled building blocks for hierarchical materials design.
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 structure during assembly. Here, we demonstrate, through computer simulations and experiments, that shape and interaction decoupling occur in colloidal cuboids suspended in evaporating emulsion droplets. The resulting colloidal clusters serve as preassembled mesoscale building blocks for larger-scale structures. We show that clusters of up to nine particles form mesoscale building blocks with geometries that are independent of the particles' degree of faceting and dipolar magnetic interactions. To highlight the potential of these superball clusters for hierarchical assembly, we demonstrate, using computer simulations, that clusters of six to nine particles can assemble into high-order structures that differ from bulk self-assembly of individual particles. Our results suggest that preassembled building blocks present a viable route to hierarchical materials design.

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