Next Generation Colloidal Origami: Assembly of Directionally-Interacting Microcubes

该项目涉及胶体粒子的组装，旨在扩大对可重构和活性“胶体折纸”结构制作的基本理解。该团队将建立磁场驱动的微观立方体单元组装的基本原理，这些单元的序列编码了它们的功能、能力和效用。所获得的科学知识可以使未来基于折纸粒子网络的柔软，形状变化和刺激响应材料的制造成为可能。对这些新兴主动系统的更广泛的基本理解将使新材料的设计成为可能，这些新材料可以应用于微型机器人操纵器、软致动器、微尺度上的能量收集和重定向设备，以及诸如磁刺激生物支架之类的生物医学应用。该项目还将帮助培养新一代的本科生和研究生，涉及从经典化学工程到活性和可重构材料等新兴领域的多学科课题。研究小组的高中和社区外展活动将通过令人兴奋的动手演示，展示具有视觉吸引力的磁性微型机器人和折纸模型。广泛的教育和推广活动将针对初高中学生、不同背景的本科生和研究生，特别是那些来自STEM领域代表性不足群体的学生。该项目将通过建立控制一类新型工程材料的原理来推进基础科学，这些材料是磁性极化的、立方体形状的微粒子，它们在响应外部磁场和电场时如何相互作用、组装、重新配置和推进。将被组装的微尺度金属介电单元具有令人兴奋的特性的独特组合：它们可以(1)以定向特定和可控的方式相互作用，(2)从磁场中存储能量，(3)通过重新配置释放磁能，(4)使用外部电能作为自我推进的来源，使它们成为“活跃”粒子。装配过程的实验和建模的结合将使理解和控制具有按需可逆相变的新型智能材料和凝胶的微折纸组件的形成成为可能。该项目的第一个目标是为两类微立方体建立交互驱动组装的基本原理。该团队将调查形成的阶段类型、它们的结构、连接性，以及根据需要重新配置的能力。第二个目标是探索添加粒子运动如何改变组装相的结构和性质。他们的假设是，活性粒子的动态运动性可以用来制造新型的高度互联的结构。第三个目标是将响应性和可重构的“折纸”结构嵌入软物质介质中，从而展示具有不同寻常特性的新型场响应材料，这些材料可用于现实世界的应用。该项目将协助研究人员的多学科教育工作，并将通过发展动手示范能力来加强他们的外联活动。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project involves the assembly of colloidal particles and aims to expand fundamental understanding in the making of reconfigurable and active "colloidal origami" structures. The team will establish the principles underlying the magnetic-field-driven assembly of microscopic cube-shaped units whose sequence encodes their function, capability and utility. The scientific knowledge gained could enable future fabrication of soft, shape-changing and stimuli-responsive materials based on origami particle networks. The broader fundamental understanding of these emerging active systems will make possible the design of new materials that could find application in microrobotic manipulators, soft actuators, devices for harvesting and redirecting energy on the microscale, and biomedical applications such as magnetically-stimulated bioscaffolds. The project will also assist in educating a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students in multidisciplinary topics ranging from classical chemical engineering to the emerging areas of active and reconfigurable materials. The research team's high school and community outreach activities will be enhanced through exciting hands-on demonstrations with visually-attractive models of magnetic microbots and origami. The broad range of educational and outreach activities will be aimed towards middle and high school students, undergraduates with diverse backgrounds and graduate students, especially those from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. The project will advance fundamental science by establishing the principles that govern how a new class of engineered materials - magnetically-polarizable, cube-shaped microparticles - interact, assemble, reconfigure and propel in response to external magnetic and electric fields. The microscale metallo-dielectric units that will be assembled possess a unique combination of exciting features: they can (1) interact in a directionally-specific and controlled way, (2) store energy from a magnetic field, (3) release magnetic energy through re-configuration, and (4) use external electric energy as a source of self-propulsion, making them "active" particles. A combination of experiment and modeling of the assembly processes will make it possible to understand and control the formation of micro-origami components for novel smart materials and gels with on-demand reversible phase transitions. The first objective of the project is to establish the fundamental principles of interaction-driven assembly for two classes of microcubes. The team will investigate the types of phases formed, their structures, connectivity, and ability to re-configure on demand. The second objective is to explore how adding particle motility modifies the structure and properties of the assembled phases. The hypothesis is that the dynamic motility of the active particles could be used to produce new types of highly interconnected structures. The third objective is to embed the responsive and reconfigurable "origami" structures into soft matter media, thereby demonstrating new field-responsive materials with unusual properties that can be useful for real-world applications. The project will assist in the multidisciplinary education efforts of the researchers and will enhance their outreach activities by developing of hands-on demonstration capabilities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.