Activity-Enhanced Colloidal Materials Assembly

The emerging field of active matter has given us the ability to intentionally drive and dynamically manipulate individual particles in synthetic systems. Chemically-coated colloids and nanoparticles can self-propel or 'swim' in a directed way via a chemical fuel source and/or light activation. Doping of material with active particles can speed up the assembly process by overcoming kinetic barriers, can increase the "effective local temperature" causing a rearrangement and annealing of defects, and can drive the system to completely new structures and pathways inaccessible through equilibrium processes. Our computational studies of these active colloids will map out a wide parameter space to understand the dynamics of heterogeneous, nonequilibrium colloidal systems. As a result, together with our experimental collaborators, our goal is to provide unprecedented particle-level control over the assembly process and thus materials properties through controlled and targeted dynamic manipulation of individual particles.