From: 2024-02-21 14:15 to 15:00
Place: Lecturehall KC:F
Contact: felix [dot] roosen-runge [at] fkem1 [dot] lu [dot] se

A Physical Chemistry seminar by Postdoc Fabrizio Camerin, Physical Chemistry, Lund University.

Title: Colloidal molecules with controlled valence (and flexibility)

Abstract: Colloidal molecules with anisotropic shapes and interactions are powerful model systems for deciphering the behavior of real molecules and building units for creating materials with designed properties. 

While many strategies for their assembly have been developed, they typically yield a broad distribution or are limited to a specific type. 

In this talk, I will uncover how cubes and spheres can be exploited to generate distinct colloidal molecules over a wide variety of size ratios with desired valence and coordination. I will discuss how electrostatic repulsion between spheres is important to leverage the templating effect of cubes, leading the spheres to preferentially assemble on the facets rather than the edges and corners of the cube. Furthermore, for enhancing the ability to adapt their structure, colloidal molecules can be endowed with controlled conformational flexibility by assembling spherical particles onto cubes functionalized with DNA linkers. I will show that in this case the anisotropic shape of the central particle is essential for constraining the lateral motion of the particles above a critical size ratio, and that temperature can be used to lift the confinement of the spheres to the cube facets on demand.