Improved controllability of opal film growth using capillaries for the deposition process.

A capillary deposition method for the preparation of opal and inverse opal films has been developed. By this method, one can control the film thickness and the crack arrangement in opal as well as inverse opal structures. This method combines tube capillarity with cell capillarity or with gravity depending on the stability of the suspensions. The combination of tube capillarity with cell capillarity is used to prepare opal films from stable suspensions. The tube capillary transports the suspension, while the cell capillary helps to assemble the spheres. The setup defines the drying fronts, thickness, and crack arrangements of the opal films. The combination of capillarity with gravity is useful for making opal films from unstable suspensions. Opal films of spheres with size up to 1 mum can be easily prepared from this combination. Here, the gravity influences the arrangement of the spheres. The two-capillary setup has also been used to infiltrate the opal films with a titania precursor. After calcination, inverse titania opal films with skeleton structure have been obtained.