Active Patchy Colloids with Shape-Tunable Dynamics

Controlling the complex dynamics of active colloids—the autonomous locomotion of colloidal particles and their spontaneous assembly—is challenging yet crucial for creating functional, out-of-equilibrium colloidal systems potentially useful for nano- and micromachines. Herein, by introducing the synthesis of active “patchy” colloids of various low-symmetry shapes, we demonstrate that the dynamics of such systems can be precisely tuned. The...