Highly Ordered Monolayers of μm-Sized Polystyrene Spheres Studied by Grazing-Incidence Small-Angle X‑ray Scattering, Simulations, and Geometrical Calculations
Unraveling the two-dimensional (2D) structural ordering of colloidal particles assembled at a flat surface is essential for understanding and optimizing their physical properties. So far, grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) has been widely used to determine crystallographic infor...
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Published in | Langmuir Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 1185 - 1194 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
American Chemical Society
16.01.2024
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Unraveling the two-dimensional (2D) structural ordering of colloidal particles assembled at a flat surface is essential for understanding and optimizing their physical properties. So far, grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) has been widely used to determine crystallographic information on 2D self-assembled structures of nanosize objects. However, solving the structure of 2D lattices consisting of micrometer (μm)-sized objects still remains a challenge using scattering methods. Here, a model 2D SCALMS (supported catalytically active liquid metal solution) template is fabricated from μm-sized polystyrene (PS) spheres that form a monolayer on top of the flat solid support. GISAXS patterns of the sample were collected for rotation angles around its surface normal in steps of 3°. For every rotation angle, different Bragg-type interference maxima along the out-of-plane (q z ) direction were observed. On the basis of simulations of GISXAS patterns of single domains of ordered particle arrangements using the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) and validation against a simple geometrical scattering model, the interference maxima could nicely be interpreted to originate from a monolayer of the μm-sized spherical particles which are arranged in domains of hexagonal 2D paracrystalline order. This novel GISAXS evaluation technique serves as a proof of principle for determining the μm-size periodicity of 2D crystalline domains and demonstrates its potential to spatially resolve the relative orientations of such domains with respect to a reference direction. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0743-7463 1520-5827 |
DOI: | 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02219 |