Micro–Nanosized Nontraditional Evaporated Structures Based on Closely Packed Monolayer Binary Colloidal Crystals and Their Fine Structure Enhanced Properties

Interest in monolayer binary colloidal crystals (bCCs) has long been motivated by their wide applications. Large-area various monolayer bCC patterns are self-assembled in air–water interface and reveal that the structure of closely packed large polystyrene (PS) colloidal spheres is vital to the formation of bCCs. Small spheres may have very limited influence on the final close-packed structure of large spheres; therefore, the periodically ordered bCC patterns can be designed by choosing large colloidal spheres with the needed size. After oxygen plasma treatment, various controllable morphologies of nanoparticles can be achieved by the etched spheres acting as a template during the metal deposition. On the basis of the complex bCC patterns and subsequent oxygen plasma processing, this work points to a new method of designing the dimension and separation of nontraditional evaporated structures, including dot, strip, and block, which demonstrate fine structure enhanced performance. The experimental results are further supported by theoretical calculations.