Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 19, 2026

Self-Assembly of Microtubule Tactoids
Published on: June 23, 2022
Non-Equilibrium Self-Assembly of Monocomponent and Multicomponent Tubular Structures in Rotating Fluids
Taehoon Lee1,2, Konrad Gizynski1, Bartosz A Grzybowski1,2
1IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter, UNIST-gil 50, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 689-798, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
When suspended in a denser rotating fluid, lighter particles experience a cylindrically symmetric confining potential that drives their crystallization into either monocomponent or unprecedented binary tubular packing. These assemblies form around the fluid's axis of rotation, can be dynamically interconverted (upon accelerating or decelerating the fluid), can exhibit preferred chirality, and can be made permanent by solidifying the fluid. The assembly can be extended to fluids forming multiple concentric interfaces or to systems of bubbles forming both ordered and "gradient" structures within curable polymers.
Related Concept Videos
Steady, Laminar Flow in Circular Tubes
Assembly of Cytoskeletal Filaments
Microtubule Instability

