Effects of the surface pressure on the formation of Langmuir-Blodgett monolayer of nanoparticles

The effects of the surface pressure on the particle arrangement of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) monolayers of alkanethiol-capped gold nanoparticles were studied. The LB monolayers were prepared from a highly concentrated particle solution, which increases film fabrication efficiency but readily causes small particle voids in the particle array. Overcompressing the LB monolayer to a high surface pressure restructured the particles and eliminated the voids. When the gold particles capped by dodecanethiol were 8.5 nm in diameter, the particle arrangement was vastly improved and a wafer-scale LB monolayer was transferred onto a substrate at the surface pressure of 20 mN/m.