Co-Self-Assembly of Binary Colloidal Crystals at the Air-Water Interface

A simple, fast, and cost-effective co-self-assembly approach to fabricate large-area two-dimensional (2D) binary colloidal crystals has been developed. By manipulating the size ratio and number ratio of the two monodisperse polystyrene latexes, a variety of binary colloidal crystal monolayers with different structures were successfully prepared. The co-self-assembly mechanism of the 2D binary colloidal crystals at the air-water interface was investigated. It was found that the glass slide and the ethanol involved in this work had played significant roles as buffer storage and spreading agent, respectively.