View source for Continuous Convective Assembling of Fine Particles into Two-Dimensional Arrays on Solid Surfaces

by Lidiya Mishchenko

== Reference ==
Antony S. Dimitrov and Kuniaki Nagayama,
''Langmuir'' '''1996''', 12, 1303-1311


== Keywords ==
Convective assembly, colloid, disjoining pressure, force balance, hyrdostatic pressure, dynamic equilibrium


== Abstract ==

"Forming regular textures of an arbitrary size on smooth solid surfaces is the challenge of future technology
to produce new types of optical gratings, optical filters, antireflective surface coatings, selective solar
absorbers, data storage, and microelectronics. Here we present a novel approach to form such sophisticated
textures: controlling the growth of particle arrays on smooth and wettable solid surfaces. The obtained
centimeter-size polycrystalline monolayer films consist of closely packed fine particles. Coloring of the
monolayer which arises from the light diffraction, interference, and scattering exclusively inherent in
textured films shows the size of the differently oriented crystal domains building the film. The results
show that the higher the particle monodispersity, the lower the particle volume fraction, and the higher
the environmental humidity, the larger the size of the forming domains."


== Soft Matter Example ==

The theory in this paper serves as a seminal work for understanding convective colloidal assembly. The basic principle is that if a wetting vertical substrate is withdrawn from a solution of colloidal crystals at a particular rate (to be calculated), one may be able to deposit a monolayer of colloids on the substrate (with deposition at the meniscus).

No later paper seems to contradict the basic principle behind this assembly. There have been papers, however, that go into more detail about the fluid flow responsible for the convective formation of colloidal crystals and how this flow results in fcc packing. Also, some papers did not use the withdrawal method employed here to create monolayers, but instead left the substrate in the suspension, and created multilayer colloidal crystals (through pure evaporative assembly).

The basic theory behind this convective flow of colloids to the meniscus involves a simple force balance. 

If the system (meniscus) is in equilibrium with the surrounding air (i.e. the surrounding air is saturated with water), then the forces within the thin wetted film shown in Figure 1 balance.

[[Image:Nagayama Continuous Convective Assembling of Fine Particles Langmuir 1996 (2).JPG]]

where Pi is the sum of van der Waals and electrostatic disjoining pressures that the colloids/thin film experince (as they interact with the substrate), P<sub>cp</sub> is the capillary pressure due to the curvature of the liquid surface between neighboring colloids in the film (see the inset in Figure 1), P<sub>c</sub> is a reference capillary pressure (0 if compared to the horizontal surface of the bulk suspension), P<sub>h</sub> is the hydrostatic pressure, h<sub>c</sub> is the height relative to horizontal water surface, delta-rho is
the density difference between the suspension and the surrounding gas atmosphere, and g is gravity.

[[Image:Nagayama Continuous Convective Assembling of Fine Particles Langmuir 1996 (3).JPG]]
 
[[Image:Nagayama Continuous Convective Assembling of Fine Particles Langmuir 1996.JPG|thumb|400 px|"Figure 1. Sketch of the particle and water fluxes in the vicinity of monolayer particle arrays growing on a substrate plate that is being withdrawn from a suspension. The inset shows the menisci shape between neighboring particles."]]