Transient colloidal crystals fueled by electrochemical reaction products.

Conventional electric field directed colloidal assembly enables fabricating ordered structures but lacks temporal control over assembly state. Chemical reaction networks have been discovered that transiently assemble colloids; however, they have slow dynamics (hrs - days) and poor temporal tunability, utilize complex reagents, and produce kinetically trapped states. Here we demonstrate transient colloidal crystals that autonomously form, breakup, and reconstitute in response to an electrochemical reaction network driven by a time invariant electrical stimulus.