Programming Interfacial Porosity and Symmetry with Escherized Colloids

Published

February 22, 2024

Author(s)

Nathan Mahynski, Vincent K. Shen

Abstract

We simultaneously design the porosity and plane symmetry of self-assembling colloidal films by using isohedral tiles to determine the location and shape of enthalpically interacting surface patches on motifs being functionalized. The symmetries of both the tile and motif determine the symmetry group of the final assembly. Previous work has either ignored symmetry altogether or accounted for only the tile's properties, applicable only when the motif is asymmetric; this approach provides a complete accounting and enables the design of symmetric colloids using this tile-based approach, which are often more practical to manufacture. We present the methodology, based on the henomeric type of the tile, and provide computational tools which enable automatic classification of all tiles for a given motif, and the optimization of the tile to fit the motif, sometimes referred to as "Escherization".

Citation

Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation

Volume

20

Issue

5

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01284

Local Download

Keywords

self-assembly, colloids, interfaces

Citation

Mahynski, N. and Shen, V. (2024), Programming Interfacial Porosity and Symmetry with Escherized Colloids, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01284, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=956660 (Accessed October 9, 2025)