Assemblies of nanoparticles are promising building blocks for future lab-on-a-chip devices such as sensors. Recently, ordered arrays of nanoparticles have been realized by convective assembly on surface-wrinkled elastomers. While this simple and lithography-free procedure is compatible with a variety of functional particles, technological applications require a transfer of the formed colloidal assemblies onto flat solid substrates. We present a new method in which colloidal assemblies are transferred by capillary forces. In contrast to classical �lift-off and transfer� methods, conformal contact between the particles and the target substrate is not required. However, successful particle transfer depends on the wettability of the target substrate and can be suppressed by a hydrophobic monolayer. By chemical surface patterning locally controlled particle transfer is possible with high precision. Our method is robust enough to conduct multiple colloid deposition steps, resulting in hierarchical structures that could find application in plasmonic sensing or the construction of metamaterials.

Hierarchical surface patterning by wettability controlled nanoparticle transfer from wrinkled surfaces

245th National Meeting (2013)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.