Hierarchical self-assembly of asymmetric amphiphatic spherical colloidal particles.

From dumbbells to fcc crystals, we study the self-assembly pathway of amphiphatic spherical colloidal particles as a function of the size of the hydrophobic region using molecular-dynamics simulations. Specifically, we analyze how local interparticle interactions correlate to the final self-assembled aggregate and how they affect the dynamical pathway of structure formation. We present a detailed diagram separating the many phases that we find for different sizes of the hydrophobic area and uncover a narrow region where particles self-assemble into hollow faceted cages that could potentially find interesting engineering applications.