Field-induced assembly of colloidal ellipsoids into well-defined microtubules

Current theoretical attempts to understand the reversible formation of stable microtubules and virus shells are generally based on shape-specific building blocks or monomers, where the local curvature of the resulting structure is explicitly built-in via the monomer geometry. Here we demonstrate tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature communications Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 5516
Main Authors Crassous, Jérôme J, Mihut, Adriana M, Wernersson, Erik, Pfleiderer, Patrick, Vermant, Jan, Linse, Per, Schurtenberger, Peter
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Nature Publishing Group 20.11.2014
Nature Pub. Group
Subjects
Anisotropy
Capsid - physiology
Capsid Proteins - physiology
Chemical Sciences
Colloids
Electricity
Fysikalisk kemi
Kemi
Microtubules - physiology
Nanostructures
Natural Sciences
Naturvetenskap
Physical Chemistry
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Summary:Current theoretical attempts to understand the reversible formation of stable microtubules and virus shells are generally based on shape-specific building blocks or monomers, where the local curvature of the resulting structure is explicitly built-in via the monomer geometry. Here we demonstrate that even simple ellipsoidal colloids can reversibly self-assemble into regular tubular structures when subjected to an alternating electric field. Supported by model calculations, we discuss the combined effects of anisotropic shape and field-induced dipolar interactions on the reversible formation of self-assembled structures. Our observations show that the formation of tubular structures through self-assembly requires much less geometrical and interaction specificity than previously thought, and advance our current understanding of the minimal requirements for self-assembly into regular virus-like structures.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms6516