title: Rapid fabrication of hierarchically structured supramolecular nanocomposite thin films in one minute.
abstract: Functional nanocomposites containing nanoparticles of different chemical compositions may exhibit new properties to meet demands for advanced technology. It is imperative to simultaneously achieve hierarchical structural control and to develop rapid, scalable fabrication to minimize degradation of nanoparticle properties and for compatibility with nanomanufacturing. Here we show that the assembly kinetics of supramolecular nanocomposites in thin films are governed by the energetic cost arising from defects, the chain mobility and the activation energy for inter-domain diffusion. By optimizing only one parameter, the solvent fraction in the film, the assembly kinetics can be precisely tailored to produce hierarchically structured thin films of supramolecular nanocomposites in one minute. Moreover, the strong wavelength-dependent optical anisotropy in the nanocomposite highlights their potential applications for light manipulation and information transmission. The present study may open a new avenue in designing manufacture-friendly continuous processing for the fabrication of functional nanocomposite thin films.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1760, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1760, USA.
authors.forename: Kari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thorkelsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1760, USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3111, USA.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3111, USA.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1760, USA [2] Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1760, USA [3] Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720-1760, USA.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xu