The self-assembly methods, an inexpensive and high throughput technique
capable of producing nanostructure arrays, relies on the formation
on a monolayer of self-assembled nanospheres. This paper reports on the
formation of large-areas monolayer polystyrene particles ~150 nm in
diameter onto monocrystalline Si (100) substrates by using the spin-coating
method. In this method, the quality of the deposited monolayer is determined
by the balance between spinning and solvent evaporation, accounted by two
different forces, the centrifugal force and viscous shearing force, and
their interplay. The key process parameters which influence the deposition
process and determine the properties of polystyrene monolayers such as the
spinning rate, time and concentration of PS particles in the solution were
studied. By varying the experimental conditions in different steps the films
quality can be easily improved and the optimized experimental parameters
were achieved. A homogenous and well-ordered PS monolayer with a high
surface coverage of ~94 % was formed on a large-area substrate of 1 cm ?1 cm
at specific conditions of a 2000 rpm spinning rate, 2 wt. % polystyrene
solution concentration and 210 s duration of the spinning process. We
conclude that this method can be useful in a variety of applications since
it offers a stable and controllable approach to the fabrication of monolayer
polystyrene films on a large-scale.