Selective cleavage of periodic mesoscale structures: two-dimensional replication of binary colloidal crystals into...

Specific crystallographic planes of binary colloidal crystals consisting of silica nanoparticles are two-dimensionally replicated on the surface of gold nanoplates. The selectivity of the surface patterns is explained by the geometrical characteristics of the binary colloidal crystals as templates. The binary colloidal crystals with the AlB(2)- and NaZn(13)-type structures are fabricated from aqueous dispersions of stoichiometrically mixed silica nanoparticles with different sizes. The stoichiometry is precisely controlled on the basis of a seed growth of silica nanoparticles. Dimpled gold nanoplates are formed by the two-dimensional growth of gold between partially cleaved surfaces of templates. The selectivity of the surface patterns is explained using the AlB(2)-type binary colloidal crystal as a template. The surface pattern is determined by the preferential cleavage of the plane with the lowest density of particle-particle connections. The tendency to form well-defined cleavage in binary colloidal crystals is crucial to formation of dimpled gold nanoplates, which is explained using the NaZn(13)-type binary colloidal crystal as a template. Its complex structure does not show well-defined cleavage, and only distorted nanoplates are obtained. Therefore, the mechanism of the two-dimensional replication of binary colloidal crystals is reasonably explained on the basis of their periodic mesoscale structures and crystal-like properties.