Strictly Polyhedral Colloids Challenged by Electric Field

We have succeeded in fabricating monodisperse polyhedral metal-organic framework (MOF) crystals. Here, the micron-sized rhombic dodecahedra are suspended in liquid as candidates for directed self-assembly. The application of AC electric field is found to produce assembly at various facets truncations, probably owing to induced dipole attraction, with linear chaining that we observe and analyze based on direct in-situ imaging. The facet-to-facet preference during assembly produces striking selectivity for these1D chains.