Reconfigurable colloids

Abstract

therefore be a straightforward way to produce anisotropic particles, for example, that would respond to an external electric or magnetic field. Such field susceptibility would be useful for self-assembly processes, because it would allow particles to align collectively relative to the field's direction. The fact that several locks may bind to a single key increases the possibilities of lock-and-key bonds still further. Multiple pockets on lock particles, if achievable, would introduce the colloidal equivalent of extended coordination complexes — two-and three-dimensional molecular arrays that self-assem-ble in fixed geometries from atoms and ligand molecules. The assembly of colloidal parti-cles into similar arrays might allow access to desirable, but so far elusive, complex colloidal structures 9