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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jan 3.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Phys. 2017 Jul 3;13(11):110–1104. doi: 10.1038/nphys4184

Figure 1. Frustration and adhesion compete to determine the morphology of aggregates of mismatched particles.

Figure 1

(a) Polygonal particles with well-matched shapes (here regular hexagons) readily aggregate into space-filling two-dimensional aggregates. (b) Generic particles (e.g., irregular hexagons with long and short sides) must be distorted to form a compact aggregate, resulting in geometrical frustration. (c) At low surface tensions, frustration precludes the formation of compact polygon packings, yielding tree-like aggregates. Conversely, a large surface tension results in a bulk. Fibers constitute a compromise between these two extremes.