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Non-equilibrium two-dimensional melting is less understood than its equilibrium counterpart. Now it is shown that topologically driven melting in a two-dimensional crystal of charged colloids is the same irrespective of the mechanisms that generate the defects

Creating new materials requires novel approaches to design and synthesize small building particles. Sacanna et al. develop a versatile synthetic strategy to design and mass-produce colloidal building blocks starting from two different colloids that leads to selectively functionalized surface areas.

Mimicking the intrinsic adaptability of biological systems in synthetic materials has been a challenge. Here, Sacanna and co-workers have used dewetting forces between an oil phase and solid colloidal substrate to facilitate shape shifting particles that can change geometry by chemical and optical signals.

Colloid science has developed through innovative use of silane coupling agents. We highlight the advances in complex colloid synthesis, focussing on 3-trimethoxysilylpropyl methacrylate (TPM) and related compounds. We outline the remarkable properties, unique synthesis strategies and ensuing pioneering applications of TPM colloids.

By exploiting geometric constraints and interfacial forces instead of chemistry, colloidal clusters can be controllably coalesced into particles with uniformly distributed surface patches.

Collections of rolling colloids are shown to pinch off into motile clusters resembling droplets sliding down a windshield. These stable dynamic structures are formed through a fingering instability that relies on hydrodynamic interactions alone.

This study reveals how ionic colloidal crystals form through a two-step process, where amorphous blobs condense before transforming into ordered structures. By tuning interactions via continuous dialysis, researchers uncovered new crystal types, including a previously unknown open-framework structure.

Index-matched fluorescent particles provide a system that directly visualizes ionic crystallization using confocal microscopy, and offers insight into the structure, nucleation and growth of ionic solids.

Hollow colloidal capsules, each with a single micropore, act as artificial cell-like structures that can capture and release payloads such as solid particles or bacteria from the external environment.

Colloidal self-assembly requires carefully balanced particle interactions that are often incompatible with the mechanical disturbances associated with macroscopic-scale manufacturing. Now, a practical bottom-up route has enabled the production of bulk solid materials with nanoscale components.

Oppositely charged colloidal particles are assembled in water through an approach that allows electrostatic interactions to be precisely tuned to generate macroscopic single crystals.

Polymer precipitation under turbulent flow is used for the high-throughput synthesis of soft microparticles with fractal coronas that display significant adhesive properties.

The competition between colloidal interactions resulting from polymer bridging and polymer exclusion in polymer–colloid dispersions leads to their solidification both on heating and on cooling.

Self-assembly of cubic diamond crystals is demonstrated, by using precursor clusters of particles with carefully placed ‘sticky’ patches that attract and bind adjacent clusters in specific geometries.

Colloidal particles bonding via attractive patches mimic the bonding of atoms in atomic compounds and materials. By assembling patchy particles into the graphene lattice, the authors obtain insight into lattice defects in this important 2D material.

A chiral fluid comprising spinning colloidal magnets exhibits macroscopic dynamics reminiscent of the free surface flows of Newtonian fluids, together with unique features suggestive of Hall—or odd—viscosity.

Myriad complex colloidal particles have been engineered to investigate the growth of microscopic architectures from the bottom up. This Review provides a framework for the synthesis of such particles using an analogy to traditional total synthesis, describing how elementary particles are combined and transformed into new forms of colloidal matter.

Active colloidal particles are shown to be capable of aggregating into stable spinning clusters that constitute self-powered microgears. The demonstration reveals a new design principle for micromachinery using dissipative building blocks.