Spontaneous propagation of self-assembly in a continuous medium.
We report a mechanism in which self-assembly propagates spontaneously in a continuous medium, enabling the delivery of local order information to distance. In a large stable system a locally self-assembled structure as a precursor destabilizes its surrounding areas through a dipole interaction. The newly formed structures inherit the same order information from the precursor and further activate the self-assembly of their neighbors. This process causes spatial extension of self-assembly and replication of the order, producing extremely long-range ordered superlattice without defects.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Zhouzhou
Z
Zhao
Wei
W
Lu
D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular
D003102:Colloids