title: Selective Janus particle assembly at tipping points of thermally-switched wetting.
abstract: Thermal wetting can simply, selectively and reversibly join patchy particles into clusters (2D and 3D) and also colloidal crystals over the narrow temperature range of 1-2 °C. This is demonstrated with Janus particles (gold half-coated silica spheres) immersed in a binary mixture of water/2,6-lutidine, such that the relative strength of gold-gold bonding through hydrophobic interaction and silica-silica bonding through the wetting-induced attraction is reversibly switched according to temperature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801 (USA) http://groups.mrl.uiuc.edu/granick/
authors.forename: Changqian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Granick
keywords: Janus particle; reconfigurable materials; selective self-assembly; temperature triggers; wetting