Issue 20, 2014

Self-assembly of reconfigurable colloidal molecules

Abstract

The lock-and-key colloidal particles of Sacanna et al. are novel “dynamic” building blocks consisting of a central spherical colloidal particle (key) attached to a finite number of dimpled colloidal particles (locks) via depletion interactions strong enough to bind the particles together but weak enough that the locks are free to rotate around the key. This rotation imbues a mechanical reconfigurability to these colloidal “molecules”. Here we use molecular simulation to predict that these lock-and-key building blocks can self-assemble into a wide array of complex crystalline structures that are tunable via a set of reconfigurability dimensions: the number of locks per building block, bond length, size ratio, confinement, and lock mobility. We demonstrate that, with reconfigurability, ordered structures – such as random triangle square tilings – assemble, despite being kinetically inaccessible with non-reconfigurable but similar building blocks.

Graphical abstract: Self-assembly of reconfigurable colloidal molecules

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Jan 2014
Accepted
24 Jan 2014
First published
24 Jan 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 3541-3552

Self-assembly of reconfigurable colloidal molecules

D. Ortiz, K. L. Kohlstedt, T. D. Nguyen and S. C. Glotzer, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 3541 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM00026A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements