Particulate templates and ordered liquid bridge networks in evaporative lithography

Abstract

Weinvestigate the properties of latex particle templates required to optimize the development of ordered liquid bridge networks in evaporative lithography. These networks are key precursors in the assembly of solutions of conducting nanoparticles into large, optically transparent, and conducting microwire networks on substrates (Vakarelski, I. U.; Chan, D. Y. C.; Nonoguchi, T.; Shinto, H.; Higashitani, K. Phys. Rev. Lett., 2009, 102, 058303). An appropriate combination of heat treatment and oxygen plasma etching of a close-packed latex particle monolayer is shown to create open-spaced particle templates which facilitates the formation of ordered fully connected liquid bridge networks that ar..