Self-assembly of microcomponents using the entropic effect

Abstract

We propose the use of the entropic effect (the depletion volume effect), which is at work in the assembly of biomolecules, for the self-assembly of artificially engineered microcomponents. When the solution contains macromolecule at relatively high concentration, microcomponents formed assembled structures. The bonding energy is not originated from the surface; it is generated by increasing the translational entropy of macromolecules in the solution. We expect that use of the depletion volume effect promotes the search of the global free-energy minimum in the system by avoiding being trapped to the local minima in the self-assembly process.