Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 25 July 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5632, pp. 483 - 487
DOI: 10.1126/science.1086189
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Research Articles

Dense Packing and Symmetry in Small Clusters of Microspheres

Vinothan N. Manoharan,1 Mark T. Elsesser,1 David J. Pine1,2*

When small numbers of colloidal microspheres are attached to the surfaces of liquid emulsion droplets, removing fluid from the droplets leads to packings of spheres that minimize the second moment of the mass distribution. The structures of the packings range from sphere doublets, triangles, and tetrahedra to exotic polyhedra not found in infinite lattice packings, molecules, or minimum–potential energy clusters. The emulsion system presents a route to produce newcolloidal structures and a means to study howdifferent physical constraints affect symmetry in small parcels of matter.

1 Department of Chemical Engineering, 2 Department of Materials, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: pine{at}mrl.ucsb.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
From the Cover: Making polymeric micro- and nanoparticles of complex shapes.
J. A. Champion, Y. K. Katare, and S. Mitragotri (2007)
PNAS 104, 11901-11904
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A precise packing sequence for self-assembled convex structures.
T. Chen, Z. Zhang, and S. C. Glotzer (2007)
PNAS 104, 717-722
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Colloidal Jamming at Interfaces: A Route to Fluid-Bicontinuous Gels.
K. Stratford, R. Adhikari, I. Pagonabarraga, J.-C. Desplat, and M. E. Cates (2005)
Science 309, 2198-2201
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Supramolecular Assembly of Amelogenin Nanospheres into Birefringent Microribbons.
C. Du, G. Falini, S. Fermani, C. Abbott, and J. Moradian-Oldak (2005)
Science 307, 1450-1454
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Kaolinite, Halloysite, and Iron Oxide Influence on Physical Behavior of Formulated Soils.
S. L. West, G. N. White, Y. Deng, K. J. McInnes, A. S. R. Juo, and J. B. Dixon (2004)
Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 68, 1452-1460
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)