Spin-coated self-assemblies of colloidal particles have been developed recently as an attractive close-packed monolayer of the particles for a variety of applications, but they are limited by the small area of their monolayers, especially given their low uniformity and monolayer coverage on large-area substrates. We report several noteworthy characteristics of a close-packed monolayer of polystyrene nanospheres (PS NSs) fabricated using a simple and inexpensive spin-coating method with a PS NS suspension mixed using the nonionic surfactant polyoxyethylene (12) tridecyl ether (PEO-TDE). In our study, we show that the PEO-TDE surfactant offers excellent wettability, surface tension, and a slow solvent evaporation rate of the PS NS suspension, similar to the conventional surfactant Triton X-100. We demonstrate that the relatively high monolayer coverage with reduced defects is produced when introducing the PEO-TDE surfactant. Specifically, monolayer coverage of more than 95% on a Si substrate was achieved, which is much better than that with the typical Triton X-100, and is one of the highest coverage rates realized by a spin-coating method. This excellent uniformity of the PS NS monolayer with high monolayer coverage is mainly attributed to the relatively low viscosity of the PS NS suspension, even at high concentrations of PEO-TDE. Moreover, the PEO-TDE surfactant provides highly uniform monolayers on a large-scale glass substrate even for large-sized PS NSs. We also highlight the fact that the PEO-TDE surfactant has another advantage in that the spin-coating process of the PS NS suspension can be done under common ambient laboratory conditions, unlike those required for the highly toxic Triton X-100. We therefore conclude that PEO-TDE can be a useful surfactant during the fabrication of close-packed monolayers for various applications owing to its simple and straightforward control of PS NSs, its uniform and high surface coverage, and due to the safety of the fabrication process.

旋涂的胶体颗粒自组装体最近已经发展成为一种引人注目的紧密堆积的单层颗粒，可用于各种应用，但是它们受到其单层面积很小的限制，特别是考虑到它们的均匀性低和单层覆盖率低等特点。大面积基材。我们报告了一个紧凑的聚苯乙烯纳米球（PS NSs）紧密堆积的单层的几个值得注意的特性，这些聚苯乙烯纳米球使用一种简单而廉价的旋涂方法，并使用非离子表面活性剂聚氧乙烯（12）十三烷基醚（PEO-TDE）混合而成的PS NS悬浮液。在我们的研究中，我们表明，与传统的表面活性剂Triton X-100相似，PEO-TDE表面活性剂可提供出色的润湿性，表面张力以及PS NS悬浮液的缓慢溶剂蒸发速率。我们证明，引入PEO-TDE表面活性剂时，会产生相对较高的单层覆盖率，且缺陷减少。具体而言，在Si基板上实现了超过95％的单层覆盖率，这比典型的Triton X-100更好，并且是通过旋涂方法实现的最高覆盖率之一。具有高单层覆盖率的PS NS单层出色的均匀性主要归因于PS NS悬浮液的相对较低的粘度，即使在高浓度的PEO-TDE中也是如此。此外，PEO-TDE表面活性剂即使在大型PS NSs上，也可在大型玻璃基板上提供高度均匀的单层膜。我们还强调了一个事实，即PEO-TDE表面活性剂还有另一个优势，即PS NS悬浮液的旋涂工艺可以在普通的环境实验室条件下完成，这与高毒性Triton X-100所需要的条件不同。因此，我们得出结论，由于PEO-TDE对PS NS的简单直接控制，其均匀且高的表面覆盖率以及制造过程的安全性，在封闭包装的单层膜制造过程中可以用作各种应用的有用的表面活性剂。 。