Soft colloidal monolayer with reflection symmetry through confined drying

Abstract

Colloidal monolayers serve as fundamental building blocks in fabricating diverse functional materials, pivotal for surface modifications and chemical reactivity and controlled assembly of nanoparticle. In this article, we report the formation of colloidal monolayers generated by drying an aqueous droplet containing soft colloids confined between two hydrophilic parallel plates. The analysis of the kinetics of evaporation in this confined mode showed that (i) For a significant portion of the drying time, the drops adopt a catenoid configuration; (ii) At the penultimate stage of drying, the catenoid structure undergoes division into two daughter sessile drops; (iii) the three-phase contact line remains pinned at a specific location while it continuously slips at all other locations. The interplay between interface-assisted particle deposition onto the solid substrate and the time evolution of particle concentration within the droplet during evaporation results in unique microstructural features within the deposited patterns. Notably, these deposit patterns exhibit a reflection symmetry. The microstructural features of the dried deposits are further quantified by calculating the particle number density, inter-particle separation, areal disorder parameter, and the bond orientational order parameter. The variation of these parameters for deposits formed under different conditions, such as by altering the spacing between parallel plates and adjusting the concentration of microgel particles in the droplet, is discussed.