Demirörs Ahmet F, Alison Lauriane
Complex Materials, Department of Materials , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich , Switzerland.
J Phys Chem Lett. 2018 Aug 2;9(15):4437-4443. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b01538. Epub 2018 Jul 24.
The assembly of materials from building blocks has been in the core of a wide range of applications from catalysis to photonics and electronics. External electric fields enable the interactions between building blocks to be controlled via induced dipoles. Dipolar interactions were used so far to obtain one-dimensional chains or three-dimensional non-close-packed lattices. However, complex colloidal assemblies and clusters of simple spherical particles are rare. Here we demonstrate a novel self-assembly approach enabling the formation of regular axially symmetric clusters, an array of colloidal assemblies as per design of posts, and hierarchical complex assemblies by using posts and dipolar interactions or combining them. Regulating the polarization of the particles from positive to negative allows us to control the interparticle interactions from attractive to repulsive at the poles or equator of the particles. Therefore, such particle-particle interactions enable switching between Saturn ring-like and candle-flame-like axially symmetric assemblies, which could potentially be exploited for display applications.
从构建基元组装材料一直是从催化到光子学和电子学等广泛应用的核心。外部电场能够通过诱导偶极子来控制构建基元之间的相互作用。到目前为止，偶极相互作用被用于获得一维链或三维非密堆积晶格。然而，复杂的胶体组装体和简单球形颗粒的聚集体却很少见。在此，我们展示了一种新颖的自组装方法，通过使用柱体和偶极相互作用或将它们结合起来，能够形成规则的轴对称聚集体、按柱体设计排列的胶体组装阵列以及分层复杂组装体。将颗粒的极化从正调节到负，使我们能够在颗粒的极点或赤道处将颗粒间相互作用从吸引控制为排斥。因此，这种颗粒间相互作用能够在土星环状和烛焰状轴对称组装体之间切换，这有可能被用于显示应用。
