Design and characterization of randomly speckled spheres.

We use the "particle lithography" technique to fabricate randomly speckled spheres. Parts of positively charged 3.3 microm polystyrene microspheres were masked off with negatively charged 0.9 microm silica particles, and the remaining portion was covered with negatively charged 60 nm polystyrene nanoparticles. The masking particles were then removed to leave speckles on the larger core particle. Images from electron microscope and confocal microscope show that the diameter of the circular speckles is predictable and reliable, following an estimate from simple geometry, and that the number of speckles formed on a particle can be altered by changing the concentration of silica particle masks. The process described in this paper can be adapted to a wide variety of materials, opening the door for applications where size-controlled patches of one chemistry can appear on core particles of another chemistry and where the precise placement of patches is of little importance.