Contact: Emil Venere,
venere@purdue.edu
765-494-4709
Purdue University

Colloidal Crystal

Caption: Researchers at Purdue have developed a "self-assembling" technique to create a "nearly perfect two-dimensional colloidal crystal," or a precisely ordered layer of particles, a critical step toward growing three-dimensional crystals for use in optical communications and other technologies. The method works by positioning tiny particles onto a silicon template containing precisely spaced holes that are about one-hundredth the width of a human hair. This photograph, taken with a scanning electron microscopy, shows a side-by-side comparison between Purdue's structure (right) and a structure that results when a template is not used.

Credit: You-Yeon Won and Jaehyun Hur, Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering

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