### Session Y18: Focus Session: Surface Instabilities and Adsorbed or Grafted Layers

8:00 AM–11:00 AM, Friday, March 20, 2009
Room: 319

Abstract ID: BAPS.2009.MAR.Y18.1

### Abstract: Y18.00001 : Drying-Mediated Self-Assembly of Highly Ordered Complex Structures: From Polymers to Nanoparticles

8:00 AM–8:36 AM

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#### Author:

Zhiqun Lin
(Iowa State University)

Drying of a sessile drop containing nonvolatile solutes readily self-assembles into a number of concentric coffee rings'' by repetitive stick-slip'' motion of the three-phase contact line. However, due mainly to lack of control over the evaporation process of the drop, the challenge remains to use evaporative self-assembly to rationally synthesize'' coffee rings'' of different shapes and sizes of high regularity and fidelity. Here, we report a facile, robust, and one-step evaporation method for producing in a precisely controllable manner versatile microstructures possessing high regularity, dispensing with the need for lithographic techniques and externally applied fields. Polymer or nanocrystal solutions are confined in a simple geometry comprised of a curved surface placed upon a flat substrate. By changing the shape of the upper surface of the imposed geometry, the controlled, evaporative self-assembly of polymer or nanocrystal solutions yields a variety of complex, intriguing, and well-ordered structures over large areas. As such, this method represents a significant advance in creating regularly organized, complex structures with potential applications in microelectronics, optoelectronics, and biotechnology, among other areas.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2009.MAR.Y18.1