The virtues of periodic, or carefully defined aperiodic 3D structures with characteristic length scales ranging from the 10s of nanometers to a few micrometers for both photonic and energy storage applications are clear. While creating such structures in 2D via conventional lithographic approaches is reasonably standard, creating such structures in 3D is much more challenging, in particular given that the materials required for various applications are quite different than materials conventionally formed into colloidal particles. What we have shown through multiple examples, is that colloidal assembly, followed by templating, enables the “best of both worlds”, 3D mesostructured materials with both the appropriate characteristic dimensions and formed out of the appropriate materials for wide ranging applications in both photonics and energy storage. My interest in colloidal systems started as a postdoc at Bell Labs, with one of my first papers on colloidal self-assembly being co-authored with Joanna Aizenberg entitled “Patterned Colloidal Deposition Controlled by Electrostatic and Capillary Forces”, which was published in PRL in 2000. This paper introduced me to subjects that have continued to play a central role in my research today, electrostatic interactions in soft mater systems, capillary forces, and self-assembly of both colloids and molecules.

Colloids as the central building block for advanced photonics and energy storage systems

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