Wan Hao, Jeon Geunwoong, Xin Weiyue, Grason Gregory M, Santore Maria M
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, 120 Governors Drive, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA.
Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, 710 N. Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Apr 24;15(1):3442. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47844-x.
The morphologies of two-dimensional (2D) crystals, nucleated, grown, and integrated within 2D elastic fluids, for instance in giant vesicle membranes, are dictated by an interplay of mechanics, permeability, and thermal contraction. Mitigation of solid strain drives the formation of crystals with vanishing Gaussian curvature (i.e., developable domain shapes) and, correspondingly, enhanced Gaussian curvature in the surrounding 2D fluid. However, upon cooling to grow the crystals, large vesicles sustain greater inflation and tension because their small area-to-volume ratio slows water permeation. As a result, more elaborate shapes, for instance, flowers with bendable but inextensible petals, form on large vesicles despite their more gradual curvature, while small vesicles harbor compact planar crystals. This size dependence runs counter to the known cumulative growth of strain energy of 2D colloidal crystals on rigid spherical templates. This interplay of intra-membrane mechanics and processing points to the scalable production of flexible molecular crystals of controllable complex shape.
二维（2D）晶体在二维弹性流体（例如巨型囊泡膜）中形核、生长和整合，其形态由力学、渗透性和热收缩的相互作用决定。固体应变的减轻驱动了高斯曲率消失（即可展域形状）的晶体形成，相应地，周围二维流体中的高斯曲率增强。然而，在冷却以生长晶体时，大囊泡承受更大的膨胀和张力，因为它们小的面积与体积比减缓了水的渗透。结果，尽管大囊泡的曲率变化更平缓，但仍会形成更复杂的形状，例如具有可弯曲但不可延伸花瓣的花朵，而小囊泡则含有致密的平面晶体。这种尺寸依赖性与二维胶体晶体在刚性球形模板上已知的应变能累积增长相反。膜内力学与加工过程的这种相互作用表明，可以可扩展地生产形状可控的柔性分子晶体。
