Session A7 - Mechanics of Self-Assembled Structures.
INVITED session, Monday morning, March 22
516C, Palais des Congres
Dense spherical particles on a flat surface usually pack into a simple triangular lattice, similar to billiard balls at the start of a game. The minimum energy configuration for interacting particles on the curved surface of a sphere, however, presents special difficulties, as recognized already by J.J. Thomson. We describe experimental investigations of the structure of two-dimensional spherical crystals. The crystals, formed by beads self-assembled on water droplets in oil, serve as model systems for exploring very general theories about the minimum energy configurations of particles with arbitrary repulsive interactions on curved surfaces. Above a critical system size we find that crystals develop distinctive high-angle grain boundaries or “scars” not found in planar crystals. The number of excess defects in a scar is shown to grow linearly with the dimensionless system size. First experiments where the melting of the crystal structure was observable will be discussed. Dynamic triangulation methods allow the analysis of the dynamics of the defects. Possible modifications towards mechanically stabilized self assembly structures result in so called Colloidosomes, which are promising for many different encapsulation purposes.