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Assembly Controlled by Shape
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2018
Abstract
To research the impact of the shape on the assembly of the natural objects (protein, virus, bacteria, living cells) the polymer microcapsules with similar surface chemistry and different by shape (spherical, cubical and tetrahedral) had been synthesized. It was found that the energetically favourable face-to-face attachment of anisotropic microcapsules drives the formation of stable and compacted assembly while isotropic microcapsules assembly is mobile and chain-like structures with a point like a contact area. The difference in assembling behaviour of anisotropic (cubic, tetrahedral) and isotropic (spherical) microparticles is related to the fact that the interfacial hydrophobic energies between the anisotropic microparticles are 6-4 orders of magnitude higher than that for the isotropic microparticles due to the significantly higher contact area of anisotropic microparticles. Such mimicking of the natural objects by polymer microcapsules and research their interaction driven by shape explains the arrangements of isotropic and anisotropic cells in bacteria and its mobility.
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- Copyright © Materials Research Society 2018
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