Figure 1

The schematics of two-dimensional representation of the drying process: (A) microsphere configuration above the critical volume, (B) At critical packing there is a balance between the capillary force $F_{\gamma }$ and the contact force $F_c$ from the nearby particles, (C) final packing with polymer stabilized inside. The schematics of the drying process with polymers inside: (D) microsphere or polymer in an emulsion droplet, (E) osmotic force $F_{\Pi }$ exerted by the polymers, (F) final packing. (G) Initial polydisperse droplets. The scale bar is $10\mu \mathrm{m}$. (H) Polymer depletion in the dilute regime. The depletion region is shaded in grey and the hatched region corresponds to the overlapped depletion zone. (K) The depletion doublets and triplets formed inside an emulsion droplet.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

Cluster configurations for $N=5–9$. The scale bar is $1\mu \mathrm{m}$. The images were digitally processed to reduce background noise and increase contrast. The top rows show the electron micrographs of the clusters and the bottom rows illustrate the polyhedra by treating the center of the sphere as a vertex. The clusters in row A satisfy minimal second moment distribution. The clusters in row B agree with solutions to the Tammes problem. The clusters in row C do not belong to A and B.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

(Color online) Optical micrographs of the packing process for category A, B, and C. The cartoons in the right column show possible starting conditions for each category. The arrows in row C point two doublets in the emulsion droplet. They never come apart thoughout the packing process. Movies are available as auxiliary materials [23].Reuse & Permissions