Universal Dynamic Self-assembly: From Colloids to Microorganisms to Sub-10 nm Particles

Arguably, the ultimate goal for self-assembly research is to develop a methodology that can be applied to almost any material, where the dynamics are largely independent of the initial conditions of the system, applicable at the smallest scale as well as the largest. Here, we show a universal dynamic/dissipative self-assembly methodology in a highly nonlinear and highly stochastic system operating far from equilibrium where we demonstrate exotic patterns and behaviour emerging from (i) simple polystyrene colloids with diameters ranging from 250 nm to 1 µm, (ii) three different microorganisms namely, immotile S. cerevisiae that are elliptical in shape, ~7 µm in diameter, immotile M. luteus that are spherical in shape, ~500 nm in diameter and motile E. coli that are rod-like with dimensions of ~1 µm x 2 µm, (iii) gold nanoparticles with 5 nm in diameter. Furthermore, all these different materials can be spatially arranged in a fashion to do specific movements such as rotary motion.