Strongly Metastable Assemblies of Particles at Liquid\nInterfaces

Abstract

The self-assembly of floating particles\nis a widely observed phenomenon.\nIdeally, rafts of identical floating spheres or cylinders should assemble\nin a closed-packed fashion. However, rafts are observed to exhibit\nlarge and various defects, and we show that the conjunction of lateral\nliquid bridges between particles and contact angle hysteresis freezes\nthe rotation of particles around their neighbors, a mechanism that\ngenerates imperfect rafts. Conversely, we demonstrate how this capillary\nbond can be exploited to sculpt 2D aggregates far from equilibrium\nthat are persistent.