Active control of equilibrium, near-equilibrium, and far-from-equilibrium colloidal systems

Mark N. McDonald, Qinyu Zhu, Walter F. Paxton, Cameron K. Peterson, Douglas R. Tree

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The development of top-down active control over bottom-up colloidal assembly processes has the potential to produce materials, surfaces, and objects with applications in a wide range of fields spanning from computing to materials science to biomedical engineering. In this review, we summarize recent progress in the field using a taxonomy based on how active control is used to guide assembly. We find there are three distinct scenarios: (1) navigating kinetic pathways to reach a desirable equilibrium state, (2) the creation of a desirable metastable, kinetically trapped, or kinetically arrested state, and (3) the creation of a desirable far-from-equilibrium state through continuous energy input. We review seminal works within this framework, provide a summary of important application areas, and present a brief introduction to the fundamental concepts of control theory that are necessary for the soft materials community to understand this literature. In addition, we outline current and potential future applications of actively-controlled colloidal systems, and we highlight important open questions and future directions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1675-1694
Number of pages20
JournalSoft Matter
Volume19
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 10 2023
Externally publishedYes

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from Brigham Young University and the Simmons Research Endowment at Brigham Young University (No. 101004366) as well as the Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium, grant No. 80NSSC20M0103.

FundersFunder number
Utah NASA80NSSC20M0103
Brigham Young University101004366

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