Spontaneous formation of large-area monolayers of well-ordered nanoparticles via a wet-coating process

Monolayers of well-ordered close-packed silica nanoparticles (NPs) with a diameter of 25 nm were spontaneously formed on silicon substrates over a large area and at a high rate via a wet-coating process using a capillary coater. The effects of zeta potential, dispersion solvent, and substrate friction on the NP self-assembly induced by the solvent evaporation were investigated. Experimental results showed that the solvent and the substrate had a larger impact on the order of formed monolayers than the zeta potential did, which are discussed from the viewpoint of the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) and non-DLVO theories. Based on the above studies, we proposed a solution to fabrication of well-ordered NP monolayers without boundary defects at the surface coverage of ∼1 via the wet-coating process.