Patchy particles made by colloidal fusion
Patchy particles made by colloidal fusion
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DOI：
10.1038/nature23901
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发表时间：
2017-10-12
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Sacanna, Stefano
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gong, Zhe;Hueckel, Theodore;Sacanna, Stefano
胶体颗粒表面的斑块（1-5）提供了定向信息，使颗粒能够自组装成高阶结构。尽管计算工具可以进行定量预测，并可以生成设计规则，将粒子的斑块基序与其内部微观结构和自组装材料的紧急特性联系起来（6-8），但具有表面斑块（或“斑块”粒子）的粒子模型系统的实验实现仍然是一个挑战。合成的片状胶体颗粒通常是模拟中使用的数字构建块的较差几何近似值（9,10），并且很少能够以足够高的产量制造，以常规用作实验模型系统。在这里，我们介绍了一种方法，我们称之为胶体融合，以可调和可扩展的方式制造功能性斑块颗粒。利用配位动力学和润湿力，我们设计了混合液体-固体团簇，在添加增塑剂后，它演变成具有一系列斑块表面形态的颗粒。我们能够通过考虑表面能量最小化来预测和控制进化途径，从而导致两个主要的产品分支：第一，具有液体表面斑块的球形颗粒，能够与邻近颗粒形成可固化的键，以组装坚固的超胶体结构；第二，具有多面液体隔室的颗粒，其可以固化和纯化以产生胶体多面体。这些发现概述了一种可扩展的策略来合成斑块状粒子，首先通过计算机模拟设计它们的表面图案，然后在实验室中以高保真度重建它们。
Patches on the surfaces of colloidal particles(1-5) provide directional information that enables the self-assembly of the particles into higher-order structures. Although computational tools can make quantitative predictions and can generate design rules that link the patch motif of a particle to its internal microstructure and to the emergent properties of the self-assembled materials(6-8), the experimental realization of model systems of particles with surface patches (or 'patchy' particles) remains a challenge. Synthetic patchy colloidal particles are often poor geometric approximations of the digital building blocks used in simulations(9,10) and can only rarely be manufactured in sufficiently high yields to be routinely used as experimental model systems'. Here we introduce a method, which we refer to as colloidal fusion, for fabricating functional patchy particles in a tunable and scalable manner. Using coordination dynamics and wetting forces, we engineer hybrid liquid solid clusters that evolve into particles with a range of patchy surface morphologies on addition of a plasticizer. We are able to predict and control the evolutionary pathway by considering surface-energy minimization, leading to two main branches of product: first, spherical particles with liquid surface patches, capable of forming curable bonds with neighbouring particles to assemble robust supracolloidal structures; and second, particles with a faceted liquid compartment, which can be cured and purified to yield colloidal polyhedra. These findings outline a scalable strategy for the synthesis of patchy particles, first by designing their surface patterns by computer simulation, and then by recreating them in the laboratory with high fidelity.