Playing with sizes and shapes of colloidal particles via dry etching methods

Monolayers of self-assembled quasi-spherical colloidal particles are essential building blocks in the field of materials science and engineering. More typically, they are used as a template for the fabrication of nanostructures if they serve, for instance, as a mask for deposition of new material on the surface on which particles are assembled or for etching of the material underneath; in this case, they are removed afterwards. This is what occurs in colloidal or nanosphere lithography. In some other cases, they are not used as a sacrificial material but they are incorporated in the final structure because they are inherently interesting for their properties. Independently of their specific use and application, different strategies have been devised in order to modify size and shape of colloidal particles, so as to enrich the variety of attainable patterns and to tailor the properties of the final structures and materials. In this review, we will focus on one of the most widespread methods to shape spherical colloidal particles, i.e. dry etching techniques. We will follow the development of such approaches until recent days, so as to trace an extensive panorama of the diverse parameters that can be harnessed to achieve specific morphological changes and highlight the characteristic features of the variants of this method. We will finally discuss how particles modified via dry etching can be used for patterning or can be resuspended in solvents for very diverse applications.

Nanoplasmonic biosensors: Theory, structure, design, and review of recent applications

Nanoplasmonic biosensing shows an immense potential to satisfy the needs of the global health industry - low-cost, fast, and portable automated systems; highly sensitive and real-time detection; multiplexing and miniaturization. In this review, we presented the theory of nanoplasmonic biosensing for popular detection schemes - SPR, LSPR, and EOT - and underline the consideration for nanostructure design, material selection, and their effects on refractometric sensing performance. Later, we covered the bottom-up and top-down nanofabrication methods for nanoplasmonic biosensors. Subsequently, we reviewed the recent examples of nanoplasmonic biosensors over a wide range of clinically relevant analytes in the diagnosis and prognosis of a wide range of diseases and conditions such as biomarker proteins, infectious bacteria, viral agents. Finally, we discussed the challenges of nanoplasmonic biosensing toward clinical translation and proposed strategic avenues to be competitive against current clinical detection methods. Hopefully, nanoplasmonic biosensing can realize its potential through successful demonstrations of clinical translation in the upcoming years.

Asymmetric deformation of swollen microspheres on a water surface

Fabrication of anisotropic particles simply by assembly of swollen spheres on a water surface and evaporation of the swelling agent.

A high performance triboelectric nanogenerator for self-powered non-volatile ferroelectric transistor memory

We demonstrate an integrated module of self-powered ferroelectric transistor memory based on the combination of a ferroelectric FET and a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). The novel TENG was made of a self-assembled polystyrene nanosphere array and a poly(vinylidene fluoride) porous film. Owing to this unique structure, it exhibits an outstanding performance with an output voltage as high as 220 V per cycle. Meanwhile, the arch-shaped TENG is shown to be able to pole a bulk ferroelectric 0.65Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.35PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single crystal directly. Based on this effect, a bottom gate ferroelectric FET was fabricated using pentacene as the channel material and a PMN-PT single crystal as the gate insulator. Systematic tests illustrate that the ON/OFF current ratio of this transistor memory element is approximately 10(3). More importantly, we demonstrate the feasibility to switch the polarization state of this FET gate insulator, namely the stored information, by finger tapping the TENG with a designed circuit. These results may open up a novel application of TENGs in the field of self-powered memory systems.

A facile fabrication process for polystyrene nanoring arrays

Polystyrene nanoring arrays with outer diameters ranging from 130 to 230 nm were fabricated using low cost and simple fabrication techniques, including nanosphere lithography, argon plasma treatment, immersion in organic solvents and sonication. These nanorings were developed from polystyrene nanospheres pre-assembled on substrates. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the argon plasma treatment transformed polystyrene nanospheres into hollow cone-shaped nanostructures. X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopy found that the argon plasma changed the composition of the polystyrene nanospheres by forming graphitic materials. The nanoring formation mechanism was discussed based on the instrument analyses.

Tunable fabrication of two-dimensional arrays of polymer nanobowls for biomimic growth of amorphous calcium carbonate

Two-dimensional arrays of polymer nanobowls can be fabricated by an oxygen plasma etching technique. The 2D colloidal crystals made of SiO(2) @PMMA particles are fabricated by a convective self-assembly method. The oxygen plasma treatment is applied to the colloidal crystals to selectively etch the PMMA shells. Because the oxygen plasma etching proceeds in a layer-by-layer manner from top to bottom, the top parts of the PMMA shells are etched first, and the silica cores are exposed to the atmosphere, which can be removed with HF, leaving the bowl-shaped PMMA shells to form 2D arrays of polymer nanobowls. The size and packing density of the nanobowl arrays can be tuned with tightly controlled etching time. The polymer nanobowl arrays can also serve as a template to direct the growth of calcium carbonate within the interstice of the nanobowls.

Colloidal self-assembly meets nanofabrication: from two-dimensional colloidal crystals to nanostructure arrays

Self-assembly of colloidal microspheres or nanospheres is an effective strategy for fabrication of ordered nanostructures. By combination of colloidal self-assembly with nanofabrication techniques, two-dimensional (2D) colloidal crystals have been employed as masks or templates for evaporation, deposition, etching, and imprinting, etc. These methods are defined as "colloidal lithography", which is now recognized as a facile, inexpensive, and repeatable nanofabrication technique. This paper presents an overview of 2D colloidal crystals and nanostructure arrays fabricated by colloidal lithography. First, different methods for fabricating self-assembled 2D colloidal crystals and complex 2D colloidal crystal structures are summarized. After that, according to the nanofabrication strategy employed in colloidal lithography, related works are reviewed as colloidal-crystal-assisted evaporation, deposition, etching, imprinting, and dewetting, respectively.

Creation of controlled defects inside colloidal crystal arrays with a focused ion beam

In this work the reliability of the focused-ion-beam (FIB) patterning on polystyrene (PS) colloidal crystals at different scales is determined. Ordered arrays of PS spheres (465 nm) are successfully modified by selectively removing a single sphere. The water-vapor assisted FIB milling is crucial to obtain this result. Furthermore, isolated PS spheres are FIB drilled with or without chemically enhanced milling aiming at the exploration of the limits of such a technique. These controlled defects created using the FIB-assisted techniques may be helpful in preparing mockups of photonic crystals, sensors or as colloidal masks for diverse lithographic processes.

Novel walnut-like multihollow polymer particles: synthesis and morphology control

Novel walnut-like multihollow polymer particles were first prepared by gamma-ray radiation emulsion polymerization using cross-linked and sulfonated polystyrene spheres (CSPs) as the template. The formation process was studied in detail, and the morphology of walnut-like multihollow polystyrene particles could be controlled by the content of cross-linking agent, sulfonation time of CSP particles, and the weight ratio of monomer/CSP. In addition, an application of walnut multihollow polymer particles on bonding Ag nanoparticles onto the surface was achieved, which could be extended to other noble metal nanoparticles and could have a wide range of potential applications, such as catalysts, sensors, solar cells, and photonic crystals.

Building cavities in microspheres and nanospheres

This paper describes a simple method of sculpturing cavities in silica spheres by reactive ion etching using a polymer as the mask, and investigates the changing process in detail. The morphology of the cavity in the silica structure undergoes transformation in three steps: (1) increase of the diameters of the opening of the cavities; (2) increase of the depth of the cavities; and (3) change in geometry of the resulting structure. As a result, silica bowls or silica rings could be obtained by controlling the etching stage, and this approach can be extended to a wide range, from a micrometer to a nanometer, based on the silica spheres.