Colloidal spheres with well defined cavities have been fabricated in large quantities from monodisperse emulsions.
In their paper published in Soft Matter, Stefano Sacanna and colleagues at New York University, USA, and Utrecht University, The Netherlands, describe the formation mechanism of “reactive” silicon oil droplets that deform to reproducible shapes via a polymerization-induced buckling instability. The team say that owing to their unique shape, the resulting particles can be successfully used as colloidal building blocks in the assembly of composite clusters via “lock-and-key” interactions.
Why not read the full article here: Stefano Sacanna, William T. M. Irvine, Laura Rossi and David J. Pine, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI:10.1039/C0SM01125H
