When particles are bound to an interface, interactions with the surface generate forces that can attract or repel these particles based on their shape and wetting properties. Anisotropic particles interact with a specific directionality, so that certain orientations of particles repel, while others attract. When the particles involved are deformable, capillary interactions lead to complex folded shapes of floating filaments, or shape-controlled interfacial assembly.
Elastocapillary self-folding: buckling, wrinkling, and collapse of floating filaments
A. A. Evans, S. E. Spagnolie, D. Bartolo, and E. Lauga
Soft Matter 9 1711-1720 (2013)
Arthur A. Evans 