Programmable 2D materials through shape-controlled capillary forces

Eatson, Jack; Morgan, Scott; Horozov, Tommy S.; Buzza, Martin D.A.

Abstract

In recent years, self-assembly has emerged as a powerful tool for fabricating functional materials. Since self-assembly is fundamentally determined by the particle interactions in the system, if we can gain full control over these interactions, it would open the door for creating functional materials by design. In this paper, we exploit capillary interactions between colloidal particles at liquid interfaces to create two-dimensional (2D) materials where particle interactions and self-assembly can be fully programmed using particle shape alone. Specifically, we consider colloidal particles which are polygonal plates with homogeneous surface chemistry and undulating edges as this particle geometry gives us precise and independent control over both short-range hard-core repulsions and longer-range capillary interactions. To illustrate the immense potential provided by our system for programming self-assembly, we use minimum energy calculations and Monte Carlo simulations to show that polygonal plates with different in-plane shapes (hexagons, truncated triangles, triangles, squares) and edge undulations of different multipolar order (hexapolar, octopolar, dodecapolar) can be used to create a rich variety of 2D structures, including hexagonal close-packed, honeycomb, Kagome, and quasicrystal lattices. Since the required particle shapes can be readily fabricated experimentally, we can use our colloidal system to control the entire process chain for materials design, from initial design and fabrication of the building blocks, to final assembly of the emergent 2D material.

Citation

Eatson, J., Morgan, S., Horozov, T. S., & Buzza, M. D. (2024). Programmable 2D materials through shape-controlled capillary forces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 121(35), Article e2401134121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2401134121

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 14, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Aug 20, 2024
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Aug 23, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 2, 2025
• Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• Print ISSN: 0027-8424
• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 121
• Issue: 35
• Article Number: e2401134121
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2401134121
• Keywords: Colloids; Interfaces; Self-assembly; Particle simulations
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4790776
• Publisher URL: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2401134121