Proofreading mechanism for colloidal self-assembly

Designing components that can robustly self-assemble into structures with biological complexity is a grand challenge for material science. Proofreading and error correction is required to improve assembly yield beyond equilibrium limits, using energy to avoid kinetic traps in the energy landscape. Here, we introduce an explicit two-staged proofreading scheme for patchy particle colloidal assemblies that substantially improves assembly yield and robustness. The first stage implements local rules whereby particles increase their binding strengths when they detect a local environment corresponding to a desired target. The second stage corrects remaining errors, adding a reverse pathway inspired by kinetic proofreading. The scheme shows significant yield improvements, eliminating kinetic traps, giving a much broader temperature range with high yield. Additionally, the scheme is robust against quenched disorder in the components. Our findings illuminate a pathway for advancing the programmable design of synthetic living materials, potentially fostering the synthesis of novel biological materials and functional behaviors.