Formation of square-order areas on the colloidosome surface

The self-assembly of the colloidosome, i.e., the system of rather densely packed colloidal particles arranged at the spherical interface of two phases, has been simulated. Particles are retained on the sphere surface by surface tension and are ordered due to the interaction described by the Lennard-Jones potential. The particle coordinates are obtained by conditional minimization of the free energy of the system. The violations of the average hexagonal order of colloidosome surface particles, not reduced to the topologically caused formation of pentagonal point defects, are studied. It is shown that the average area excess per colloidal particle can cause the formation of square-order areas observed in colloidosomes.