Synthesis and self-assembly of multiblock and Janus particles

Abstract

We develop general guidelines for the rational design of both building blocks and interaction patterns of patchy colloids in liquid suspension, towards the long-term goal of developing the practical capability to make a colloidal structure, or any colloidal material, that is “assemblable”. Two levels of efforts are included in this thesis, first, the fabrication of patchy colloidal particles on demand, second, the observation and analysis of their self-assembly kinetics. For the second part, we focus on three intertwining topics: phase diagram construction, kinetic pathway selection and external force modulation. A mixture of theoretical calculation, dynamic simulation, and experiments is shown to demonstrate proofs-of-concept. We rely throughout on the capacity, in these colloidal systems, to resolve the motions of individual particles in suspension by optical microscope, this serving as the underpinning, unifying foundation.