Mena Youssef

Unstable fronts and motile structures formed by microrollers

Collections of rolling colloids are shown to pinch off into motile clusters resembling droplets sliding down a windshield. These stable dynamic structures are formed through a fingering instability that relies on hydrodynamic interactions alone. Condensation of objects into stable clusters occurs naturally in equilibrium1 and driven systems2,3,4,5. It is commonly held that potential interactions6, depletion forces7, or sensing8 are the only mechanisms which can create long-lived compact structures. Here we show that persistent motile structures can form spontaneously from hydrodynamic interactions alone, with no sensing or potential interactions. We study this structure formation in a system of colloidal rollers suspended and translating above a floor, using both experiments and large-scale three-dimensional simulations. In this system, clusters originate from a previously unreported fingering instability, where fingers pinch off from an unstable front to form autonomous ‘critters’, whose size is selected by the height of the particles above the floor. These critters are a stable state of the system, move much faster than individual particles, and quickly respond to a changing drive. With speed and direction set by a rotating magnetic field, these active structures offer interesting possibilities for guided transport, flow generation, and mixing at the microscale.

Shape-shifting colloids via stimulated dewetting

The ability to reconfigure elementary building blocks from one structure to another is key to many biological systems. Bringing the intrinsic adaptability of biological systems to traditional synthetic materials is currently one of the biggest scientific challenges in material engineering. Here we introduce a new design concept for the experimental realization of self-assembling systems with built-in shape-shifting elements. We demonstrate that dewetting forces between an oil phase and solid colloidal substrates can be exploited to engineer shape-shifting particles whose geometry can be changed on demand by a chemical or optical signal. We find this approach to be quite general and applicable to a broad spectrum of materials, including polymers, semiconductors and magnetic materials. This synthetic methodology can be further adopted as a new experimental platform for designing and rapidly prototyping functional colloids, such as reconfigurable micro swimmers, colloidal surfactants and switchable building blocks for self-assembly.

Targeted assembly and synchronization of self-spinning microgears

Self-assembly is the autonomous organization of components into patterns or structures: an essential ingredient of biology and a desired route to complex organization1. At equilibrium, the structure is encoded through specific interactions2–8, at an unfavourable entropic cost for the system. An alternative approach, widely used by nature, uses energy input to bypass the entropy bottleneck and develop features otherwise impossible at equilibrium9. Dissipative building blocks that inject energy locally were made available by recent advances in colloidal science10,11 but have not been used to control self-assembly. Here we show the targeted formation of self-powered microgears from active particles and their autonomous synchronization into dynamical superstructures. We use a photoactive component that consumes fuel, haematite, to devise phototactic microswimmers that form self-spinning microgears following spatiotemporal light patterns. The gears are coupled via their chemical clouds by diffusiophoresis12 and constitute the elementary bricks of synchronized superstructures, which autonomously regulate their dynamics. The results are quantitatively rationalized on the basis of a stochastic description of diffusio-phoretic oscillators dynamically coupled by chemical gradients. Our findings harness non-equilibrium phoretic phenomena to program interactions and direct self-assembly with fidelity and specificity. It lays the groundwork for the autonomous construction of dynamical architectures and functional micro-machinery.Active colloidal particles are shown to be capable of aggregating into stable spinning clusters that constitute self-powered microgears. The demonstration reveals a new design principle for micromachinery using dissipative building blocks.

Monitoring Molecular Transport across Colloidal Membranes

The controlled shaping and surface functionalization of colloidal particles has provided opportunities for the development of new materials and responsive particles. The possibility of creating hollow particles with semipermeable walls allows modulating molecular transport properties on colloidal length scales. While shapes and sizes can typically be observed by optical means, the underlying chemical and physical properties are often invisible. Here, we present measurements of cross-membrane transport via pulsed field gradient NMR in packings of hollow colloidal particles. The work is conducted using a systematic selection of particle sizes, wall permeabilities, and osmotic pressures and allows tracking organic molecules as well as ions. It is also shown that, while direct transport of molecules can be measured, indirect markers can be obtained for invisible species via the osmotic pressure as well. The cross-membrane transport information is important for applications in nanoconfinement, nanofiltration, nanodelivery, or nanoreactor devices.