Colloids articles within Nature Materials

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  • Letter |

    Understanding the consequences of the interplay of defects and local curvature in crystals is far from complete despite the considerable influence that a defect has on the crystal’s local properties. It is now found that interstitials inserted in curved crystals at oil/glycerol interfaces can fractionate into two dislocations, which glide through the lattice in opposite directions until they get absorbed into existing dislocations, scars or pleats.

    • William T. M. Irvine
    • , Mark J. Bowick
    •  & Paul M. Chaikin

  • News & Views |

    Colloidal particles interacting through DNA linkers can be designed to form solids that melt when either heated or cooled. This scenario widens the temperature window in which colloidal superlattices form by reducing kinetic bottlenecks.

    • Oleg Gang

  • Letter |

    The self-assembly of colloidal particles functionalized with complementary DNA strands into crystalline structures has been hampered by kinetic trapping into disordered aggregates, which effectively limits the temperature window where crystallization occurs. A strategy to design DNA-functionalized colloids with a broadened crystallization window is now proposed, and is supported by theory and simulations.

    • Stefano Angioletti-Uberti
    • , Bortolo M. Mognetti
    •  & Daan Frenkel

  • Research Highlights |

    • Christian Martin

  • News & Views |

    The ability of laser interference potentials to trap and control colloidal particles opens up a new potential area of 'toy systems' displaying real physics. A beautiful example is the study of friction between colloidal crystals and a variety of artificially created surface potentials.

    • Andrea Vanossi
    •  & Erio Tosatti

  • News & Views |

    For colloidal particles adsorbed at liquid/liquid interfaces, it is now found that the height of a particle above the interface equilibrates much more slowly than expected. Such a slow relaxation has major implications for the understanding of effective interactions between colloids at fluid interfaces.

    • Ignacio Pagonabarraga

  • Letter |

    The growth of microcrystals can be controlled by various agents such as ions, small charged molecules and polyelectrolytes. However, their use is specific to the crystallizing material. It is now shown that oppositely charged nanoparticles can act as ‘universal’ surfactants for controlling the growth and stability of microcrystals of inorganic salts and of charged organic molecules.

    • Bartlomiej Kowalczyk
    • , Kyle J. M. Bishop
    •  & Bartosz A. Grzybowski

  • Letter |

    Colloidal particles adsorbed at liquid interfaces are commonly assumed to be at equilibrium, but holographic microscopy experiments now reveal that microspheres bound to a water/oil interface may take months to equilibrate. The observed ageing dynamics agree with a model of thermally activated hopping of the particle/interface contact line over nanoscale surface defects, and have implications for understanding the interactions between adsorbed colloidal particles.

    • David M. Kaz
    • , Ryan McGorty
    •  & Vinothan N. Manoharan

  • Letter |

    Monodisperse octapod-shaped inorganic nanocrystals suspended in suitable solvents are shown to self-assemble into chains of interlocked octapods, which in turn aggregate to form three-dimensional crystals. Such hierarchical self-assembly is supported by a simulation model of the octapods, which shows that the favourable interlocked configuration is encoded in the octapod’s shape.

    • Karol Miszta
    • , Joost de Graaf
    •  & Liberato Manna

  • Letter |

    A suspension of magnetic colloidal particles confined at a liquid–liquid interface and energized by an external periodic magnetic field self-assembles into star-shaped structures that can be magnetically manipulated to capture and transport smaller non-magnetic particles.

    • Alexey Snezhko
    •  & Igor S. Aranson

  • Article |

    Colloidal suspensions often contain mixtures of particles that must be sorted by size or density, but the sediment structure resulting from polydisperse particles settling rapidly remains unclear. Bidisperse colloids with soft-sphere interactions are now shown to spontaneously arrange into two macroscopic layers after sedimentation.

    • César González Serrano
    • , Joseph J. McDermott
    •  & Darrell Velegol

  • News & Views |

    Maximum yield of self-assembly for a target structure can be attained with simple rules for the interactions between the structure's building blocks.

    • Daan Frenkel
    •  & David J. Wales

  • News & Views |

    The realization of a self-assembled kagome lattice from colloids with attractive hydrophobic patches offers a simple but powerful example of the bottom-up design strategy.

    • Flavio Romano
    •  & Francesco Sciortino

  • News & Views |

    Empty liquids and equilibrium gels have so far been only theoretical possibilities, predicted for colloids with patchy interactions. But evidence of both has now been found in Laponite, a widely studied clay.

    • Willem K. Kegel
    •  & Henk N. W. Lekkerkerker

  • Letter |

    Theoretical models of colloids with directional and anisotropic interactions have predicted the existence of both liquids with vanishing density, and arrested networks at equilibrium — that is, not undergoing phase separation. Experimental evidence of empty liquids and equilibrium gels is now provided for Laponite, a synthetic clay. These observations further our understanding of anisotropic interactions in colloidal suspensions.

    • Barbara Ruzicka
    • , Emanuela Zaccarelli
    •  & Francesco Sciortino

  • Letter |

    The formation of a NaTl lattice structure by DNA-mediated assembly of gold nanoparticles and virus-like protein nanoparticles is reported. The inorganic and organic components each form diamond-like frameworks that interpenetrate to give the NaTl lattice. These diamond-like structures are of interest for potential applications as photonic materials.

    • Petr Cigler
    • , Abigail K. R. Lytton-Jean
    •  & Sung Yong Park

  • Letter |

    DNA-functionalized, anisotropic nanostructures, such as triangular nanoprisms and nanorods, are shown to assemble by means of DNA hybridization into colloidal crystal structures. The crystallization parameters of these nanostructures, and hence the dimensionality and symmetry of the resultant superlattice, are strongly influenced by particle shape.

    • Matthew R. Jones
    • , Robert J. Macfarlane
    •  & Chad A. Mirkin

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