Active Colloidal Crystallites

Here we present active colloidal crystallites, which are constructed from several physically bonded and mutually aligned catalytically active Janus spheres. The anisotropic catalytic activity on one-half of the crystallites gives rise to self-assembled active clusters consisting of multiple moving parts. Particles in the vicinity assemble at the crystal's edge and subsequently begin to undergo steady motion, the visualization of which is facilitated by the use optically anisotropic spherical Janus particles. Thus, the dynamics of the self-assembled active structure remains stable over long time periods, even in a noisy and chaotic environment.