IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v5y2014i1d10.1038_ncomms4676.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spatially and temporally reconfigurable assembly of colloidal crystals

Author

Listed:
  • Youngri Kim

    (University of Michigan)

  • Aayush A. Shah

    (Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan)

  • Michael J. Solomon

    (University of Michigan
    Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan)

Abstract

The self-assembly of colloidal crystals is important to the production of materials with functional optical, mechanical and conductive properties. Yet, self-assembly methods are limited by their slow kinetics and lack of structural control in space and time. Refinements such as templating and directed assembly partially address the problem, albeit by introducing fixed surface features such as templates or electrodes. A template-free method to reconfigure colloidal crystals simultaneously in three-dimensional space and time would better align work in colloidal assembly with materials applications. Here, we report a photo-induced assembly method that yields regions either filled with colloidal crystals or completely devoid of colloids. The origin of the effect is found to be electrophoresis of colloids generated by photochemistry at an indium tin oxide-coated substrate. Simple optical manipulations are applied to reconfigure these assembly and depletion regions. Thus, the method represents a new kind of template-free, reconfigurable three-dimensional photolithography.

Suggested Citation

  • Youngri Kim & Aayush A. Shah & Michael J. Solomon, 2014. "Spatially and temporally reconfigurable assembly of colloidal crystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4676
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4676
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4676
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms4676?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4676. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.