Direction control of oriented self-assembly for 1D, 2D, and 3D microarrays of anisotropic rectangular nanoblocks.

Micrometric linear chains (1D arrays), monolayers (2D arrays), and superstructures (3D arrays) of anisotropic Mn3O4 nanocuboids were selectively produced by oriented self-assembly through evaporation of a dispersion. The 1D arrays were basically formed on a substrate via oriented self-assembly of the rectangular crystals in the ⟨100⟩ direction. The 2D and 3D microarrays were obtained by adjusting the particle concentration of the dispersion. The [001] direction of tetragonal crystal was controlled to be parallel and perpendicular to the substrate by changing the polarity of the medium.