Towards Superlattices via Evaporative Self-Assembly of Aerosol Nanoparticles

• Nanoparticle superlattices consisting of densely packed particles with periodic arrangements can exhibit interesting collective properties different from those of individual nanoparticles and thus have attracted great interest in research due to their potential applications in optoelectronic, plasmonic, and magnetic devices[1, 2]. Evaporation-induced self-assembly on solid substrates which employs nanoparticles produced by wet chemistry is one of the most widely used methods in nanoparticle superlattice fabrication[3]. However, impurities are inherent in the popular wet chemistry-based method and are often a cause of lack of reproducibility. Here we present a simple but novel method to generate close-packed arrays of nanoparticles uniquely created by combining aerosol technology with evaporation-induced self-assembly. Gold aerosol nanoparticles are generated using a spark discharge generator and are subsequently deposited on liquid droplets. We demonstrate that this way of capturing aerosol nanoparticles in the gas-liquid interface of a droplet suppresses the ubiquitous ‘coffee-ring’ effect during evaporation leading to self-assemblies of nanoparticles. This simple, effective method provides a versatile strategy for fabricating various types of nanoparticle superlattices.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Annan fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Other Physics Topics (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Nanoteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Nano-technology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

kon (subject category)

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