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These are micro-photographs of 2D nanomaterials made by spin-coating very thin coatings of polymers and nanoparticles. I make them by making a suspension of uniformly sized nanoparticles in a liquid and depositing this onto a spinning surface, then ...
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These are images of nanoparticle coatings deposited on glass, taken at low magnification (50x-100x) in a standard reflected-light microscope. They could also be called 2D colloidal crystals, as the nanoparticles are organized into close-packed crysta...
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Hey Marty, can you add descriptions as to how you make these?
These are micro-photographs of 2D nanomaterials made by spin-coating very thin coatings of polymers and nanoparticles. I make them by making a suspension of uniformly sized nanoparticles in a liquid and depositing this onto a spinning surface, then controlling the evaporative front of the liquid to leave behind self-assembled layers of close-packed nanoparticles. The magnification here is modest (50-100x), in a regular white-light microscope in reflection mode; you can't see the nanoparticles themselves, just the results of their packing and layering.
The trick to getting complex patterns is using hydrophobic nanoparticles in water, deposited onto a hydrophobic surface; the complex 'geography' arises from very thin layers of water breaking up on the repellent surface and forcing the nanoparticles out of the water to self assemble onto a surface they prefer. The colours are a result of variations in thickness - mostly single, double and triple layers of very uniformly sized nanoparticles, which yield surfaces of extremely uniform thickness and hence continuous patches of individual colours (as light bounces through it the optical pathlength acts as a resonator for one wavelength - the same phenomena which gives soap bubbles colour). The cracking patterns are the packing defects in the hexagonal self-assembly of the spheres in a given layer.
I believe the aesthetic appeal of these pictures stems from their similarity to natural forms which arise from the competition of many natural, dynamic forces. In this case hydrodynamic, evaporative, hydophobic/philic, surface tension and centripetal forces all conspire to control the self-assembly of simple spheres into complex packing and layering patterns.
The trick to getting complex patterns is using hydrophobic nanoparticles in water, deposited onto a hydrophobic surface; the complex 'geography' arises from very thin layers of water breaking up on the repellent surface and forcing the nanoparticles out of the water to self assemble onto a surface they prefer. The colours are a result of variations in thickness - mostly single, double and triple layers of very uniformly sized nanoparticles, which yield surfaces of extremely uniform thickness and hence continuous patches of individual colours (as light bounces through it the optical pathlength acts as a resonator for one wavelength - the same phenomena which gives soap bubbles colour). The cracking patterns are the packing defects in the hexagonal self-assembly of the spheres in a given layer.
I believe the aesthetic appeal of these pictures stems from their similarity to natural forms which arise from the competition of many natural, dynamic forces. In this case hydrodynamic, evaporative, hydophobic/philic, surface tension and centripetal forces all conspire to control the self-assembly of simple spheres into complex packing and layering patterns.