Assembly Engineering and the Promise of Patchy Particles

The last 20 years have seen significant advances in the theory, modeling, simulation, synthesis, fabrication and characterization of anisotropically interacting colloidal particle shapes self-assembling into complex structures. However, we have yet to realize the full promise of these patchy particles; namely, the ability to engineer the self-assembly of colloidal materials with precisely the structures we need for the combination of novel properties we want, and to do this both on demand and at scale. In this talk, we explore where another decade or two of research on patchy particles for assembly engineering may take us, what new developments are needed for progress, what exciting advances we are likely to see, and what the next generation of patchy particles might bring, both scientifically and technologically.