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Metastable Self-Assembly of Theta-Shaped Colloids and Twinning of Their Crystal Phases
Linna Wang1,2, Jiawei Lu1,2, Bing Liu1,2
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Anisotropic colloids self-assemble into different crystal structures compared to spherical colloids. Exploring and understanding their self-assembly behavior could lead to creation of new materials with hierarchical structures through a bottom-up process. Herein, we report metastable self-assembly of theta-shaped SiO2 colloids interacting with a depletion force in a quasi-two-dimensional space and we demonstrate that both a metastable "prone" crystal phase and a stable "standing" crystal phase can be formed, depending on the self-assembly path. Path selection stems from an interplay between particle-particle interactions and particle-wall interactions. In particular, a twinning of the metastable crystals was observed and two twinning mirror axes were found. A variety of complex twinned crystals were formed by each individual mirror axis or their combinations.
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