Generalized Fabrication of Two-Dimensional Non-Close-Packed Colloidal Crystals

• Published in: Langmuir Vol. 23; no. 15; pp. 8231 - 8235
• Main Authors: Venkatesh, Srinivasan, Jiang, Peng, Jiang, Bin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 17.07.2007
• Subjects: Aluminum Oxide - chemistry; Chemistry; Colloidal state and disperse state; Colloids; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Liquid Crystals - chemistry; Nanocomposites - chemistry; Silicon Dioxide - chemistry; Surface physical chemistry; Surface Properties; Titanium - chemistry; Zirconium - chemistry; Coating process; Monolayer; Plasma; Spin; Crystals; Transition element compounds; Prediction; Polymer; Etching; Complexes; Silica; Template; Nanocomposite; Titanium oxide; Wafer; Reflectance
• ISSN: 0743-7463; 1520-5827
• DOI: 10.1021/la7006809

In this paper we report a generalized templating approach for fabricating wafer-scale, two-dimensional, non-close-packed (ncp) colloidal crystals. Polymer nanocomposites consisting of monolayer ncp colloidal crystals prepared by a spin-coating process are used as sacrificial templates. After removal of the colloidal silica templates, the voids in the polymer matrix are infiltrated with other materials. By plasma-etching the polymer matrix, wafer-scale ncp colloidal crystals from a variety of functional materials can be made. This technique is scalable and compatible with standard microfabrication. Two-component colloidal arrays with complex micropatterns can also be fabricated by combining microfabrication with this templating approach. Normal-incidence reflectivity spectra of replicated titania ncp arrays agree well with theoretical prediction using Scalar Wave Approximation.