Kinetics of monolayer and bilayer nanoparticle film formation during electrophoretic deposition

Abstract

The kinetics of electrophoretic deposition are studied for the growth of monolayers and bilayers of ∼10 nm iron oxide nanoparticles. The net deposited nanoparticle film is measured as a function of time for five voltages through analysis of scanning electron microcopy images of the films. The collected data suggest that films deposited at different voltages have different kinetic behaviours. Additionally, we observe monolayer and bilayer growth separately, from which we assert that the initiation of the bilayer may be the source of variation in kinetic behaviour.

Keywords:

• Electrophoretic deposition
• Directed assembly
• Iron oxide
• Monolayer
• Time-resolved

Acknowledgments

This research is partially supported by the United States Army Research Office, Award W911NF-12-1-0047, and the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award DMR-1054161. Research was carried out at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886.