Self-assembly of monodisperse spheres on substrates with different wettability

Patterned Colloidal Photonic Domes and Balls Derived from Viscous Photocurable Suspensions

“…[18,19] From a practical standpoint, coffee-ring effects are a major obstacle for obtaining a hemispherical dome shape and the highly concentrated suspensions tend to undergo evaporationinduced agglomeration, thereby blocking the dispenser nozzle. [20][21][22] To solve these intrinsic problems, we employed an alternative strategy in the present work in which arrays of hemispherical domes of colloidal crystals are fabricated using colloidal particles dispersed in a refractive-index matching solvent with high polarity. Specifically, we used silica particles (refractive index n p ¼ 1.45) dispersed in the photocurable resin of ethoxylated trimethylolpropane triacrylate (ETPTA) (n m ¼ 1.4689).…”

Influence of Substrate Wettability on Colloidal Assembly

“…http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71991 (B) on a hydrophilic substrate, the competition of Marangoni flow (red arrows) and the evaporation-driven capillary flow (black arrows) resulted the ringshape or the disk shape. (C) Schematic depiction of the aggregation of monodisperse spheres on hydrophilic PMMA and hydrophobic FAS-coated glass substrates [36].…”

“…Of course, some researchers fabricated some interesting pattern by taking advantage of the coffee-ring effect. For example, Gu et al [36] displayed different assemble modes of PC in hydrophilic and hydrophobic substrate in Figure 3. They used different concentration suspension dripple onto polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrate and FAS-treated glass substrate in the hydrophilic substrate, ring and crater structure can be obtained, while on hydrophobic substrate, hemisphere structure also appear for the liquid shrink to a dot.…”

Droplets, Evaporation and a Superhydrophobic Surface: Simple Tools for Guiding Colloidal Particles into Complex Materials

“…The importance of the CA for the shape of the formed dry supraparticles has been demonstrated by assembling silica microspheres of 300 nm via EISA on substrates with CAs ranging from 28°–105°. Depending on the CA, ring-like structures, doughnut-like structures or hemispheres were formed [102]. Such hemispherical assemblies could also be achieved by EISA on a substrate with a CA of 100° when employing monodisperse latex particles with diameters varying in the range of 300–1100 nm.…”