Shaping Colloids for Materials Design

Materials with novel properties can be self-assembled from anisotropic colloids. Often, colloids of similar form self-assemble the same structure. We propose a general thermodynamic framework for approaching the question: Given a family of particles that all form the same structure, which among them is best? We present example calculations on systems of anisotropic hard colloids, determining, as an example, the optimal shape for self-assembling a diamond lattice.