Controlled evaporative assembly of polymers from confined solutions

The evaporative assembly has been applied to a wide spectrum of inorganic nanomaterials of different types, sizes, and shapes. The confined geometries provide a unique environment for remarkable control over the flow within an evaporating droplet, which, in turn, regulates structure formation. Controlled, rapid deposition of structured coatings from latex colloidal crystal suspensions is enabled by dragging at a constant velocity a small amount of aqueous polymer suspension confined in a meniscus between two plates placed on one another at certain angles. The coating thickness and structure are controlled by deposition speed and particle volume fraction. When the polymer solution is constrained between two parallel plates, controlling the speed of the upper sliding plate allows self-organized, mesoscale polymer patterns such as dots, stripes, and ladders to form continuously at the receding meniscus on the stationary lower substrate.