Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Materials science

Reconfigurable colloids

Nature volume 464, pages 496–497 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Colloid particles that form bonds to each other at specific orientations might self-assemble into all sorts of useful materials. The key — and the lock — to such binding has been discovered.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Lock-and-key binding in colloids.

References

  1. Sacanna, S., Irvine, W. T. M., Chaikin, P. M. & Pine, D. J. Nature 464, 575–578 (2010).

    Article  CAS  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Holtz, J. H. & Asher, S. A. Nature 389, 829–832 (1997).

    Article  CAS  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Colvin, V. L. MRS Bull. 26, 637–641 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhang, Z., Keys, A. S., Chen, T. & Glotzer, S. C. Langmuir 21, 11547–11551 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Gangwal, S., Cayre, O. J. & Velev, O. D. Langmuir 24, 13312–13320 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Leunissen, M. E. et al. Nature 437, 235–240 (2005).

    Article  CAS  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Asakura, S. & Oosawa, F. J. Polym. Sci. 33, 183–192 (1958).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Vrij, A. Pure Appl. Chem. 48, 471–483 (1976).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Glotzer, S. C. & Solomon, M. J. Nature Mater. 6, 557–562 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michael J. Solomon is in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. mjsolo@umich.edu,

    Michael J. Solomon

Authors
  1. Michael J. Solomon
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Solomon, M. Reconfigurable colloids. Nature 464, 496–497 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/464496a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/464496a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing