https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230525141429.htm

The finding could open new avenues for photonic materials that manipulate light in ways that natural crystals can't. It also showcased an unusual effect that the team is calling entropy compartmentalization.

"We are developing new ways to structure matter across scales, discovering the possibilities and what forces we can use," said Sharon Glotzer, the Anthony C. Lembke Department Chair of Chemical Engineering, who led the study published today in Nature Chemistry. "Entropic forces can stabilize even more complex crystals than we thought."