Growing large, well‐oriented colloidal crystals

The ability to manipulate colloidal crystallization is a challenging task, a consequence of teh size and Brownian motion of the colloid particles. As a direct result, temperature is not a suitable experimental parameter, even though it is important for tuning molecular crystal growth. Large single colloidal crystals with well‐defined crystal orientations can, however, be grown through combined use of a polymer template and gravity. This and other methods that have been employed in an attempt to control colloid crystal growth, such as use of external fields, are described.