Journal
SOFT MATTER
Volume 14, Issue 6, Pages 910-915Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c7sm02061a
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG through the collaborative research center [SFB 985]
- National Science Foundation
- federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia [EFRE 30 00 883 02]
- EU
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A plethora of natural systems rely on the consumption of chemical fuel or input of external energy to control the assembly and disassembly of functional structures on demand. While dissipative assembly has been demonstrated, the control of structural breakdown using a dissipative cycle remains almost unexplored. Here, we propose and realize a dissipative disassembly process using two coupled cyclic reactions, in which protons mediate the interaction between the cycles. We show how an ordered colloidal crystal, can cyclically transform into a disordered state by addition of energy to a chemical cycle, reversibly activating a photoacid. This cycle is coupled to the colloidal assembly cycle via the exchange of protons, which in turn trigger charging of the particles. This system is an experimental realization of a cyclic reaction-assembly network and its principle can be extended to other types of structure formation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available