Colloids articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deformation of soft colloidal crystals lead to work hardening, similar to that seen in the deformation of metals.

    • Seongsoo Kim
    • , Ilya Svetlizky
    •  & Frans Spaepen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A simple spectral selective active colloidal system is designed in which TiO2 colloidal species are coded with dyes to form a photochromic swarm that adapts the appearance of incident light due to layered phase segregation.

    • Jing Zheng
    • , Jingyuan Chen
    •  & Jinyao Tang

  • Article |

    For a minimal model system of colloidal droplet chains, with programmable DNA interactions, it is shown that controlling the order in which interactions are switched on directs folding into unique structures.

    • Angus McMullen
    • , Maitane Muñoz Basagoiti
    •  & Jasna Brujic

  • Article |

    Hollow colloidal capsules, each with a single micropore, act as artificial cell-like structures that can capture and release payloads such as solid particles or bacteria from the external environment.

    • Zhe Xu
    • , Theodore Hueckel
    •  & Stefano Sacanna

  • Article |

    Dispersion of colloidal disks in a nematic liquid crystal reveals several low-symmetry phases, including monoclinic colloidal nematic order, with interchange between them achieved through variations in temperature, concentration and surface charge.

    • Haridas Mundoor
    • , Jin-Sheng Wu
    •  & Ivan I. Smalyukh

  • Article |

    Self-assembly of cubic diamond crystals is demonstrated, by using precursor clusters of particles with carefully placed ‘sticky’ patches that attract and bind adjacent clusters in specific geometries.

    • Mingxin He
    • , Johnathon P. Gales
    •  & David J. Pine

  • Article |

    Oppositely charged colloidal particles are assembled in water through an approach that allows electrostatic interactions to be precisely tuned to generate macroscopic single crystals.

    • Theodore Hueckel
    • , Glen M. Hocky
    •  & Stefano Sacanna

  • Letter |

    A lithographic patterning and release method is used to create a dense, fluctuating, Brownian system of mobile colloidal kite- and dart-shaped Penrose tiles over large areas that retains quasi-crystalline order.

    • Po-Yuan Wang
    •  & Thomas G. Mason

  • Letter |

    Freezing on a spherical surface is shown to proceed by the sequestration of defects into 12 icosahedrally coordinated ‘seas’ that enable the formation of a crystalline ‘continent’ with long-range orientational order.

    • Rodrigo E. Guerra
    • , Colm P. Kelleher
    •  & Paul M. Chaikin

  • Letter |

    By exploiting geometric constraints and interfacial forces instead of chemistry, colloidal clusters can be controllably coalesced into particles with uniformly distributed surface patches.

    • Zhe Gong
    • , Theodore Hueckel
    •  & Stefano Sacanna

  • Letter |

    A class of colloids is reported in which inorganic solute particles—such as metals and semiconductors—are dispersed in molten inorganic salts.

    • Hao Zhang
    • , Kinjal Dasbiswas
    •  & Dmitri V. Talapin

  • Letter |

    The self-assembly of colloidal particles into hollow micrometre-scale capsules is achieved through the combination of anisotropic particle morphology, deformable surface ligands that re-distribute on binding and the mutual attraction between particles, suggesting a design strategy for colloidal self-assembly

    • Chris H. J. Evers
    • , Jurriaan A. Luiken
    •  & Willem K. Kegel

  • Letter |

    Incomplete premelting at the edges of monolayer colloidal crystals is triggered by a bulk solid–solid phase transition and truncated by a mechanical instability that induces homogeneous bulk melting of the crystal; these observations challenge existing theories of two-dimensional melting.

    • Bo Li
    • , Feng Wang
    •  & Yilong Han

  • Letter |

    The temperature-sensitive miscibility of hydrocarbon, silicone and fluorocarbon liquids is used to establish a one-step method of making three- and four-phase complex emulsions with highly controllable morphologies that can be alternated between encapsulated and Janus configurations by varying the balance of interfacial tensions.

    • Lauren D. Zarzar
    • , Vishnu Sresht
    •  & Timothy M. Swager

  • Letter |

    Micrometre-sized particles covered with stiff, nanoscale spikes are shown to exhibit long-term colloidal stability in both hydrophilic and hydrophobic media, without the need for chemical coating, owing to the effect of the spikes on the contact area and, consequently, the force between the particles.

    • Joong Hwan Bahng
    • , Bongjun Yeom
    •  & Nicholas Kotov

  • Letter |

    Chemical force microscopy measurements show that the immobilization of specific cationic groups near non-polar domains produces pronounced changes in the domains’ hydrophobic interaction strengths: charged ammonium groups double interaction strengths, whereas guanidinium groups eliminate measurable interactions.

    • C. Derek Ma
    • , Chenxuan Wang
    •  & Nicholas L. Abbott

  • Letter |

    The unusual structures of quasicrystals, such as the 18-fold symmetry observed in polymer micelles, lack the repeating cell pattern of conventional hard crystals; here their origin is shown to be an extension of Penrose tiling with a simple, generic interparticle interaction.

    • T. Dotera
    • , T. Oshiro
    •  & P. Ziherl

  • Letter |

    Different polymers can be used in combination to produce coexisting nanoparticles of different symmetry and tailored to co-assemble into well-ordered binary and ternary hierarchical structures.

    • André H. Gröschel
    • , Andreas Walther
    •  & Axel H. E. Müller

  • Letter |

    Magnetic fields micropatterned within a paramagnetic fluid can simultaneously trap and position both magnetic and non-magnetic microparticles, the latter including live bacteria.

    • Ahmet F. Demirörs
    • , Pramod P. Pillai
    •  & Bartosz A. Grzybowski

  • Letter |

    Topologically distinct colloidal particles introduced into a nematic liquid crystal align and generate topology-constrained three-dimensional director fields and defects in the liquid crystal fluid that can be manipulated with a variety of methods, opening up a new area of exploration in the field of soft matter.

    • Bohdan Senyuk
    • , Qingkun Liu
    •  & Ivan I. Smalyukh

  • Article |

    A general method of creating colloidal particles that can self-assemble into ‘colloidal molecules’ is described: surface patches with well-defined symmetries are functionalized using DNA with single-stranded sticky ends and imitate hybridized atomic orbitals to form highly directional bonds.

    • Yufeng Wang
    • , Yu Wang
    •  & David J. Pine

  • News & Views |

    A neat study that involves placing colloidal particles on curved oil-glycerol interfaces reveals a new form of crystal defect. The defect is called a pleat, by analogy to the age-old type of fabric fold. See Letter p.947

    • Francesco Stellacci
    •  & Andreas Mortensen

  • Letter |

    Many functional materials can be created by directing the assembly of colloidal particles into a desired structure. Control over particle assembly usually involves the use of molecules such as DNA that can recognize and bind each other. Here, a simple and effective alternative is described. Colloidal spheres serve as keys, and monodisperse colloidal particles with a spherical cavity as locks. These will spontaneously and reversibly bind to each other via the depletion interaction if their sizes match.

    • S. Sacanna
    • , W. T. M. Irvine
    •  & D. J. Pine

  • News & Views |

    Colloid particles that form bonds to each other at specific orientations might self-assemble into all sorts of useful materials. The key — and the lock — to such binding has been discovered.

    • Michael J. Solomon

  • News Feature |

    Like any other field, research on climate change has some fundamental gaps, although not the ones typically claimed by sceptics. Quirin Schiermeier takes a hard look at some of the biggest problem areas.

    • Quirin Schiermeier

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