Selectivities among capillary bonds in mesoscale self-assembly

This letter describes the capillarity-driven self-assembly of mm-sized plates of poly(dimethylsiloxane) at the perfluorodecalin/H2O interface into complex arrays. The shape of the interacting menisci could be tailored by three strategies: (1) changing the shape of uniformly hydrophobic edges; (2) patterning the distribution of vertical hydrophobic strips on the edges and, in some cases, varying the density of the blocks; and (3) patterning the hydrophobic areas on a face to be chiral.