Facile Organization of Colloidal Particles into Large, Perfect One- and Two-Dimensional Arrays by Dry Manual Assembly on Patterned Substrates

The ability to rapidly and reproducibly assemble colloidal particles into large (>mm) one- (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) single crystals with perfect control of the particle networking pattern would open a new world rich with high quality novel materials, technologies, and sciences. However, current methods rely on self-assembly of colloidal particles in solution (wet self-assembly), which intrinsically makes the assembly of the colloidal particles into defect-free large 1D and 2D single crystals difficult. We now demonstrate a new paradigm of colloidal particle organization into 1D and 2D single crystals, a process we call ‘dry manual assembly on nanolithographically patterned substrates’, which enables facile and rapid organization of colloidal particles in dry states into 1D and 2D single crystals in the centimeter or larger scales with a well-defined particle networking pattern. We believe that this novel methodology will serve as a key to open a new era of particle organization.