From Assembly of Multistate Matter to Programming Metafluids

Controlling the self-assembly of anisotropic colloidal particles in microscale confinement represents a long-standing challenge, particularly when the confinement is provided by liquid-liquid crystalline phase separation. Here, I present an approach to self-assemble colloidal systems at various confined shapes in record time, featuring novel internal self-assembly structures and multi-component configurations. By transitioning from single-state biological colloids (amyloid fibrils and cellulose nanocrystals) to artificial multistate colloids (synthetic liquid crystal elastomers), I demonstrate how dynamic tuning of self-assembly structures in real-time will enable the creation of metafluids with programmable properties that exceed the limitations of traditional fluids.