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Self-assembly of smart mesoscopic objects

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Abstract.

Self-assembly due to capillary forces is a common method for generating 2D mesoscale structures made of identical particles floating at some liquid-air interface. We show herein how to create soft entities that deform or not the liquid interface as a function of the strength of some applied magnetic field. These smart floating objects self-assemble or not depending on the application of an external field. Moreover, we show that the self-assembling process can be reversed opening ways to rearrange structures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GRASP, CESAM Research Unit, Institute of Physics B5a, University of Liège, B4000, Liège, Belgium

    J. Metzmacher, M. Poty, G. Lumay & N. Vandewalle

Authors
  1. J. Metzmacher
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  2. M. Poty
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  3. G. Lumay
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  4. N. Vandewalle
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Correspondence to J. Metzmacher.

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Metzmacher, J., Poty, M., Lumay, G. et al. Self-assembly of smart mesoscopic objects. Eur. Phys. J. E 40, 108 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2017-11599-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2017-11599-y

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