Self-assembly of anisotropic colloidal building blocks via critical Casimir forces (B07)

• Subject Area: Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics
• Term: from 2018 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268730352

This project utilizes curvature dependent critical Casimir forces for long range particle interactions towards their self-assembly. First, the crystallization of attractive elliptical particles will be studied in-depth. First experiments indicated the particular importance of curvature-dependent critical Casimir forces, an aspect which has neither been experimentally nor theoretically addressed so far. Second, the mechanical properties of suspensions of hard silica rods will be measured using a recently developed scheme, which employs an active probe particle whose rotational diffusion coefficient is rather sensitive to the structural properties of the environment.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1214: Anisotropic Particles as Building Blocks: Tailoring Shape, Interactions and Structures
• Applicant Institution: Universität Konstanz
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Clemens Bechinger