Manipulating the Assembly of Spray-Deposited Nanocolloids: In Situ Study and Monolayer Film Preparation

Abstract

Fabrication of nanoparticle arrays on a substrate is one of the most concerned aspects for manipulating assembly of nanoparticles and preparing functional nanocomposites. Here, we studied in situ the assembly kinetics of polystyrene nanocolloids by using grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering. The structure formation of the nanoparticle film is monitored during air-brush spraying, which provides a rapid and scalable preparation. By optimizing the substrate temperature, the dispersion of the nanocolloids can be tailored to prepare monolayer film. The success of the monolayer preparations is attributed to the fast solvent evaporation which inhibits the aggregation of the nanocolloids. The present study may open a new avenue for the manufacture-friendly preparation of well-dispersed nanoparticle thin films.

Determination of the Surface Facets of Gold Nanorods in Wet‐Coated Thin Films with Grazing‐Incidence Wide Angle X‐Ray Scattering

“…Air‐Brush Spray Coating : The spray deposition was achieved through atomization of the Au nanorod dispersion with compressed N 2 gas at a pressure of 1 bar. A commercial spraying device (Grafo T3, Harder & Steenbeck GmbH & Co. KG, Germany) was modified to adapt to the beamline environment and the in situ X‐ray measurements, as reported in previous work . The spray time was set to 0.1 s, corresponding to a deposition of ≈50 pL solution.…”

“…The spray time was set to 0.1 s, corresponding to a deposition of ≈50 pL solution. The central part of the spray cone is expected to have a diameter around 30 mm and a nearly homogeneous material dispersion . The nozzle‐to‐substrate distance was 10 cm.…”

Study of a Particle Based Films Cure Process by High-Frequency Eddy Current Spectroscopy

“…For convenience, films in Table 3 are marked with triangles, in Table 4 with circles, in Table 5 with rhombuses and in Table 6 with quadrats. State (1) characterizes the percolation processes in the film [20] which occur because of the evaporation of chemicals and decreasing film thickness. State (2) shows the polymerization of the film, and state (3) corresponds to the end of the curing.…”

Core–Shell Nanoparticle Interface and Wetting Properties

“…Spray deposition is a very versatile method for nanostructuring due to tuneable homo‐ or heterogeneous droplets or deposition on 3D shapes as in car manufacturing 36,37. Nowadays, spray deposition is also well established for thin films in combination with in situ X‐ray scattering techniques to study the nanoscale self‐assembly of particles 35,38–40. Different spray‐coating devices have been applied in both industry and academia for a long time depositing conventional colloids, however more recently focused on more advanced colloidal systems and NPs including gold,41 silica,42 Cu 2 FeSnS 4 ,43 polymeric,44 and titianium dioxide 45.…”