Uniformly dispersed surface deposition of colloidal nanoparticles by boiling
Lee, Kyumin; Duchamp, Martial; Magrez, Arnaud; Kulik, Gerit; Seo, Jin Won; Kulik, Andrzej J.; Forró, László Switzerland
Depositing colloidal particles in dispersed form on a surface is difficult, because capillary forces pull the particles together as solvent dries up. Such aggregation can be avoided by boiling suspension droplets on pre-heated surfaces. Using the novel "boil deposition" technique, we have successfully deposited gold, silver, polystyrene and silica nanospheres on various surfaces in dispersed form. Depositions show good uniformity at milimeter scale. Nanotubes and nanowires dispersed in liquid could also be deposited using this technique. Uniformly surface-dispersed nanoparticles may serve as platforms for transport measurements and nanomanipulation experiments, as well as catalysts for nanotube/nanowire synthesis. We demonstrate zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire growth from gold nanospheres deposited on silicon wafer.