Steering Active-Colloid Assembly by Biasing Dissipation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dissipation bias principle for directing nonequilibrium self-assembly, enabling targeted and directional formation of ordered structures from disordered states, demonstrated with active colloids.

Contribution

It proposes a novel dissipation bias principle to control self-assembly pathways and outcomes, advancing the ability to steer nonequilibrium material formation.

Findings

Controlled formation of ordered structures from disordered states.

Directed selection among multiple assembly pathways.

Effective application demonstrated with active colloids.

Abstract

Complex nonequilibrium self-assembly enables the formation of materials with specific patterns and functions from the bottom up. How to directionally control the assembly to form the target configuration is a challenge. Here, we propose a dissipation bias principle for targeted assembly, which highlights that controlling the dissipation tendency can play an important role by modulating the frequency and intensity of local rearrangements. Following this principle, one can induce ordered target configurations from disordered structures and also achieve directional selection among multiple assembly pathways. We use the assembly of active colloids as a platform to show our results.