We report a feedback control method to precisely target the number of colloidal particles in quasi-2D ensembles and their subsequent assembly into crystals in a quadrupole electrode. Our approach relies on tracking the number of particles within a quadrupole electrode, which is used in a real-time feedback control algorithm to dynamically actuate competing electrokinetic transport mechanisms. P...

Giant vesicles (GVs) encapsulating colloidal particles by a specific volume fraction show a characteristic configuration under a hypertonic condition. Several flat faces were formed in GV membrane with orderly array of inner particles. GV shape changed from the spherical to the asymmetrical polyhedral configuration. This shape deformation was derived by entropic interaction between inner partic...

Anisotropic colloidal building blocks are quite attractive as they enable the self-assembly towards new materials with designated hierarchical structures. Although many advances have been achieved in colloidal synthetic methodology, synthesis of colloidal rings with low polydispersity and on a large scale remains a challenge. To address this issue we introduce a new site-selective growth strate...

We study elastic interactions between colloidal particles and deformation landscapes of undulations in a cholesteric liquid crystal under an electric field applied normal to cholesteric layers. The onset of undulation instability is influenced by the presence of colloidal inclusions and, in turn, layers' undulations mediate the spatial patterning of particle locations. We find that the bending ...

We report here a novel colloidal lithographic approach to the fabrication of nonspherical colloidal particle arrays with a long-range order by selective reactive ion etching (RIE) of multilayered spherical colloidal particles. First, layered colloidal crystals with different crystal structures (or orientations) were self-organized onto substrates. Then, during the RIE, the upper layer in the co...

This document describes an experimental investigation into dense collections of hard spherical particles just large enough to be studied using a light microscope. These particles display colloidal properties, but also some similarities with granular materials. We improve the quantitative analysis of confocal micrographs of dense colloidal systems, which allows us to show that methods from simul...

Colloidal gels have unique properties due to a complex microstructure which forms into an extended network. Although the bulk properties of colloidal gels have been studied, there has been difficulty correlating those properties with individual colloidal dynamics on the microscale due to the very high viscosity and elasticity of the material. We utilize rotational X-ray tracking (RXT) to invest...

The synthesis of nanoparticle clusters, also referred to as colloidal clusters or colloidal molecules, is being studied intensively as a model system for small molecule interactions as well as for the directed self-assembly of advanced materials. This paper describes a technique for the interfacial assembly of planar colloidal clusters using a combination of top-down lithographic surface modifi...

Colloidal and sol-gel procedures have been used to prepare heterogeneous catalysts consisting of platinum metal particles with narrow size distributions and well defined shapes dispersed on high-surface-area silica supports. The overall procedure was developed in three stages. First, tetrahedral and cubic colloidal metal particles were prepared in solution by using a procedure derived from that...

At equilibrium, colloidal particles in a subcritical liquid suspension are surrounded by a drying layer if the colloid has solvophobic interaction. Using Brownian dynamics computer simulations, we investigate the nonequilibrium response of this layer to a strong external driving force. We find that the driven colloidal particle dresses itself with more particles than in the equilibrium drying l...