Precise Self-Positioningof Colloidal Particles onLiquid Emulsion Droplets

Decorating emulsion droplets by particles stabilizes foodstuff and pharmaceuticals. Interfacial particles also influence aerosol formation, thus impacting atmospheric CO2 exchange. While studies of particles at disordered droplet interfaces abound in the literature, such studies for ubiquitous ordered interfaces are not available. Here, we report such an experimental study, showing that particles residing at crystalline interfaces of liquid droplets spontaneously self-position to specific surface locations, identified as structural topological defects in the crystalline surface monolayer. This monolayer forms at temperature T = Ts, leaving the droplet liquid and driving at Td < Ts a spontaneous shape-change transition of the droplet from spherical to icosahedral. The particle’s surface position remains unchanged in the transition, demonstrating these positions to coincide with the vertices of the sphere-inscribed icosahedron. Upon further cooling, droplet shape-changes to other polyhedra occur, with the p...