Facile fabrication of free-standing colloidal-crystal films by interfacial self-assembly

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• 作者：Jianan Zhang ; Mozhen Wang ; Xuewu Ge ; Mingyuan Wu ; Qingyun Wu ; Jianjun Yang ; Manyi Wang ; Zhilai Jin ; Nannan Liu
• 关键词：Free-standing colloidal crystal ; Polystyrene microsphere ; Floating self-assembly ; Porous TiO₂ materials
• 刊名：Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：1 January 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：353
• 期：1
• 页码：16-21
• 全文大小：788 K

文摘

This paper reports a rapid and facile method of preparing free-standing colloidal crystals from monodisperse charged polystyrene (PS) microspheres. Mixed solvents (ethanol/water) were used as the dispersion medium in the self-assembly process of colloidal crystals. By a simple “floating self-assembly” method, PS microspheres floated on the surface of liquid and self-assembled into large area of three-dimensional (3D) ordered colloidal crystals within 15 min. Then epichlorohydrin was added in as a cross-linking agent to strengthen the colloidal-crystal film. After cross-linking reactions between the microspheres, the obtained colloidal-crystal film was free-standing and could be easily transferred to other substrates. Using tetrabutyl titanate as a titania precursor, 3D porous TiO₂ materials with rodlike skeletal structure were fabricated from the prepared free-standing colloidal crystal. This work provides a facile method to fabricate free-standing colloidal-crystal film, which can be used as an ideal template for the preparation of porous materials.