Issue 48, 2022

Design rules for 2D field mediated assembly of different shaped colloids into diverse microstructures

Abstract

Assembling different shaped particles into ordered microstructures is an open challenge in creating multifunctional particle-based materials and devices. Here, we report the two-dimensional (2D) AC electric field mediated assembly of different shaped colloidal particles into amorphous, liquid crystalline, and crystalline microstructures. Particle shapes investigated include disks, ellipses, squares, and rectangles, which show how systematic variations in anisotropy and corner curvature determine the number and type of resulting microstructures. AC electric fields induce dipolar interactions to control particle positional and orientational order. Microstructural states are determined via particle tracking to compute order parameters, which agree with computer simulations and show how particle packing and dipolar interactions together produce each structure. Results demonstrate how choice of particle shape and field conditions enable kinetically viable routes to assemble nematic, tetratic, and smectic liquid crystal structures as well as crystals with stretched 4- and 6-fold symmetry. Results show it is possible to assemble all corresponding hard particle phases, but also show how dipolar interactions influence and produce additional microstructures. Our findings provide design rules for the assembly of diverse microstructures of different shaped particles in AC electric fields, which could enable scalable and reconfigurable particle-based materials, displays, and printing technologies.

Graphical abstract: Design rules for 2D field mediated assembly of different shaped colloids into diverse microstructures

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Aug 2022
Accepted
22 Nov 2022
First published
24 Nov 2022

Soft Matter, 2022,18, 9273-9282

Author version available

Design rules for 2D field mediated assembly of different shaped colloids into diverse microstructures

R. S. Hendley, L. Zhang and M. A. Bevan, Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 9273 DOI: 10.1039/D2SM01078J

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