Synthesis and assembly of structured colloidal particles

Synthesis and self-assembly of structured colloids is a nascent field. Recent advances in this area include the development of a variety of practical routes to produce robust photonic band-gap materials, colloidal lithography for nanopatterns, and hierarchically structured porous materials with high surface-to-volume ratios for catalyst supports. To improve their properties, non-conventional suprastructures have been proposed, which could be built up using binary or bimodal mixtures of spherical particles and particles with internal or surface nanostructures. This Feature Article will describe the state-of-the-art in colloidal particles and their assemblies. The paper consists of three main sections categorized by the type of colloid, namely shape-anisotropic particles, chemically patterned particles and internally structured particles. In each section, we will discuss not only synthetic routes to uniform colloids with a range of structures, features and shapes, but also self-organization of these colloids into macrocrystalline structures with varying nanoscopic features and functionalities. Finally, we will outline future perspectives for these colloidal suprastructures.