KCS

The ability to rapidly and reproducibly organize colloidal particles into large (> mm), single crystals with adjustable crystal orientation and symmetry has been a dream in science since it is a key to a new world rich with high quality novel materials, technologies, and sciences. However, current methods wholly rely on self assembly of colloidal particles in solution, which intrinsically makes the crystallization of the colloidal particles into defect-free large single crystals difficult. We will demonstrate a new paradigm of colloidal particle organization, a process we call forced manual assembly, which enables facile and rapid organization of colloidal particles in the dry states into one, two, and three-dimensional single crystals in the centimeter or larger scales with well defined packing symmetries and crystal orientations. We believe that this novel methodology will serve as a key to open a new era of particle organization.