Phys.org May 27, 2022
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. An international team of researchers (the Netherlands, USA (University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Canada) demonstrated 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. They showed 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, they used computer simulations to demonstrate that clusters of six to nine particles can assemble into high-order structures that differ from bulk self-assembly of individual particles. Their work suggests that preassembled building blocks present a viable route to hierarchical materials design…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Schematic illustration of different pathways to hierarchical assembly. Credit: SCIENCE ADVANCES, 27 May 2022, Vol 8, Issue 21