Hierarchical nanoparticle ensembles synthesized by liquid phase directed self-assembly.

Fowlkes, J D; Roberts, N A; Wu, Y; Diez, J A; González, A G; Hartnett, C; Mahady, K; Afkhami, S et al. · Nano Lett · 2014

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

A liquid metal filament supported on a dielectric substrate was directed to fragment into an ordered, mesoscale particle ensemble. Imposing an undulated surface perturbation on the filament forced the development of a single unstable mode from the otherwise disperse, multimodal Rayleigh-Plateau instability. The imposed mode paved the way for a hierarchical spatial fragmentation of the filament into particles, previously seen only at much larger scales. Ultimately, nanoparticle radius control is demonstrated using a micrometer scale switch.