Instant Interfacial Self-Assembly for Homogeneous Nanoparticle Monolayer Enabled Conformal ‘lift on’ Thin Film Technology

Liping Song, Ben Bin Xu, Qian Cheng, Xiaoyuan Wang, Xiaoning Luo, Sherry Chen, Tao Chen, Youju Huang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

76 Citations (Scopus)
42 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Thin film fabrication is of great importance in modern engineering. Here, we propose a universal and conformal thin film technique enabled by the wetting empowered interfacial self-assembly. By tailoring the contact angle of nanoparticle (NP), a NP monolayer can be assembled instantly (within 5 seconds) with an excellent harvesting efficiency (up to 97.5 weight %). This self-assembly strategy presents a universal applicability on various materials, e.g., nonmetal, metal, and core-shell structures, and can achieve a monolayer with same in-plane area as a 95 cm2 wafer in a single process, indicating great potential for scale-up manufacturing. Through a template transfer, we coat the surface of different substrates (plastic, paper, etc.) with the assembled film in a conformal and nondestructive "lift-on"manner and subsequently demonstrate fluorescent micropatterns. This self-assembly strategy has great implications in advancing thin film technology in a user-friendly and cost-effective fashion for applications in anti-counterfeiting, actuators, and wearable/flexible electronics.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbereabk2852
Number of pages9
JournalScience advances
Volume7
Issue number52
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Dec 2021

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