  Colloidal particles are considered ideal building blocks to produce materials
with enhanced physical properties. The state-of-the-art techniques for
synthesizing these particles provide control over shape, size, and
directionality of the interactions. In spite of these advances, there is still
a huge gap between the synthesis of individual components and the management of
their spontaneous organization towards the desired structures. The main
challenge is the control over the dynamics of self-organization. In their
kinetic route towards thermodynamically stable structures, colloidal particles
self-organize into intermediate (mesoscopic) structures that are much larger
than the individual particles and become the relevant units for the dynamics.
To follow the dynamics and identify kinetically trapped structures, one needs
to develop new theoretical and numerical tools. Here we discuss the
self-organization of functionalized colloids (also known as patchy colloids) on
attractive substrates. We review our recent results on the adsorption and
relaxation and explore the use of annealing cycles to overcome kinetic barriers
and drive the relaxation towards the targeted structures.
