The unique properties of hydrogels, such as self-healing and tuneable solubility, have been exploited to fabricate 2D non-closed packed arrays with exceptional long range order. The poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microspheres used can tolerate inclusions without the introduction of dislocations unlike hard sphere colloids.
This method is a convenient alternative to the Langmuir-Blodgett technique for fabricating ordered arrays of densely packed 2D spheres. The colloidal lithography demonstrated here could be used to pattern surfaces for application in optics and sensing.
