The Role of Anisotropy for the Assembly of Hard Colloidal Nanoparticles

The exploration of new anisotropic building blocks have received much attention as a way of increasing the variability and complexity of materials possible to be achieved by self-assembly. Here we present the results of a systematic and extensive computational study of hard polyhedral particles [1,2] and their subsequent assembly into a diverse range of complex structures. We show that by utilizing more complex, anisotropically designed building blocks new structures can be self-organized purely from entropy maximization principles. Moreover, we find that already in the liquid, the coordination number for each particle correlates to the type of crystal structure (Liquid Crystal, Crystal or Plastic Crystal) that will be assembled. Those results suggest the existence of a rationalizing principle, equivalent to Linus Pauling’s valency bond theory, governing the possible assembly of anisotropic nanoparticles into crystalline structures.

[1] Pablo F. Damasceno, Michael Engel & Sharon C. Glotzer. ACS NANO (2012).

[2] Pablo F. Damasceno, Michael Engel & Sharon C. Glotzer. SCIENCE (2012)