Dipolar capillary interactions between tilted ellipsoidal particles adsorbed at fluid-fluid interfaces.

Capillary interactions have emerged as a tool for the directed assembly of particles adsorbed at fluid-fluid interfaces, and play a role in controlling the mechanical properties of emulsions and foams. In this paper, following Davies et al. [Adv. Mater., 2014, 26, 6715] investigation into the assembly of ellipsoidal particles at interfaces interacting via dipolar capillary interactions, we numerically investigate the interaction between tilted ellipsoidal particles adsorbed at a fluid-fluid interface as their aspect ratio, tilt angle, bond angle, and separation vary. High-resolution Surface Evolver simulations of ellipsoidal particle pairs in contact reveal an energy barrier between a metastable tip-tip configuration and a stable side-side configuration. The side-side configuration is the global energy minimum for all parameters we investigated. Lattice Boltzmann simulations of clusters of up to 12 ellipsoidal particles show novel highly symmetric flower-like and ring-like arrangements.