1. Rapid visualized hydrophobic-force-driving self-assembly towards brilliant photonic crystals
- Author
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Ji Jun Xiao, Shen Shen Li, Jing Zhang, Guan Wu, Yu Tian, Cai-Feng Wang, Zhijie Zhu, Su Chen, and Qing Li
- Subjects
Materials science ,business.industry ,General Chemical Engineering ,Dissipative particle dynamics ,Nanotechnology ,02 engineering and technology ,General Chemistry ,010402 general chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,01 natural sciences ,Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering ,0104 chemical sciences ,Colloid ,Homogeneous ,Nano ,Environmental Chemistry ,Self-assembly ,Photonics ,0210 nano-technology ,business ,Biosensor ,Photonic crystal - Abstract
Methods that allow the self-assembly of colloidal nano/micro-particles into controllable structures are highly important in many applications, such as photonics, biosensors and electronic chemicals. However, the complicated procedures, low assembly efficiency and multiscale integration of self-assembly of colloidal particles have become great challenges. Here, we first develop a hydrophobic-force-induced self-assembly (HFSA) method to fabricate homogeneous and binary colloidal microdroplets by the feed of volatile fluorocarbon oil. Specially, both mono-color and dual-color colloidal photonic crystals (CPCs) can be architected via HFSA in an efficient (within 200 s), coffee-ring free and visualized fashion. Additionally, such effective HFSA process is further confirmed by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. Moreover, a variety of multi-structural colored CPCs are available by using hydrophobic reagents, combining with the visualized HFSA process. This work presents an easy-to-perform platform for designing orderly structural materials, which will significantly highlight the development of colloidal assembly methodology.
- Published
- 2021