Assembly of polystyrene colloidal crystal templates by a dip-drawing method

Separately dispersed polystyrene spheres (PS) were synthesized by an emulsifier-free emulsion polymerization technique and the PS colloidal crystal templates were assembled orderly on clean glass substrates using a dip-drawing method from the emulsion of PS. The formation process and the close-packed fashion of the PS colloidal crystal templates were discussed. Simultaneously, the surface morphology of the templates was also analyzed. The results showed that the close-packed fashion of PS array templates was face-centered cubic structure, which had been proved by the Bragg diffraction formula. The morphologies of PS colloidal crystal templates were mainly dependent on the drawing rate and PS concentration.