The densest way to pack objects in space, also known as the packing problem, has intrigued scientists and philosophers for millenia. Today, packing comes up in various systems over many length scales from batteries and catalysts to the self-assembly of nanoparticles, colloids and biomolecules. Despite the fact that so many systems' properties depend on the packing of differently-shaped components, we still have no general understanding of how packing varies as a function of particle shape. Here, we carry out an exhaustive study of how packing depends on shape by investigating the packings of over 55,000 polyhedra. By combining simulations and analytic calculations, we study families of polyhedra interpolating between Platonic and Archimedean solids such as the tetrahedron, the cube, and the octahedron. Our resulting density surface plots can be used to guide experiments that utilize shape and packing in the same way that phase diagrams are essential to do chemistry. The properties of particle shape indeed are revealing why we can assemble certain crystals, transition between different ones, or get stuck in kinetic traps.
For forthcoming colloquia, please see: http://www.materials.uoc.gr/el/colloquia