Uniform Coating of Self-Assembled Noniridescent Colloidal Nanostructures using the Marangoni Effect and Polymers

Seung Yeol Lee, Hyoungsoo Kim, Shin-Hyun Kim, and Howard A. Stone
Phys. Rev. Applied 10, 054003 – Published 1 November 2018
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Abstract

Colloidal crystals exhibit structural color without any color pigment due to the crystals’ periodic nanostructure, which can interfere with visible light. This crystal structure is iridescent as the resulting color changes with the viewing or illumination angle, which limits its use for printing or displays. To eliminate the iridescent property, it is important to make the packing of the colloidal nanoparticles disordered. Here, we introduce a drop-casting method where a droplet of a water-ethanol mixture containing monodisperse polymer-coated silica nanoparticles creates a relatively uniform and noniridescent deposit after the droplet evaporates completely on a heated substrate. The uniformity is caused by a thermal Marangoni flow and fast evaporation effects due to the heated substrate, whereas noniridescence is the outcome of short-range-ordered packing of nanoparticles by depletion attraction and friction effects produced by polymer brushes. We show that the colors of the final deposits from individual droplets remain unchanged while the viewing angle is varied under ambient light. We expect the coating method to be compatible with ink-jet printing and the uniformly coated self-assembled noniridescent nanostructures have potential for color displays using reflection mode and other optical devices.

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  • Received 9 March 2018
  • Revised 8 August 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.10.054003

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Fluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Seung Yeol Lee1,2, Hyoungsoo Kim1,3,*, Shin-Hyun Kim2, and Howard A. Stone1,†

  • 1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  • 2Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
  • 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea

  • *hshk@kaist.ac.kr.
  • hastone@princeton.edu.

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Issue

Vol. 10, Iss. 5 — November 2018

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