Abstract
Colloidal self-assembly into highly ordered binary systems represents a versatile and inexpensive approach to generate well defined surface topographical features with submicron resolution. In addition, the use of surface-functionalized particles where each particle bears a different surface functionality enables the generation of highly resolved surface chemical patterns. Such topographical, as well as chemical features, are of great interest in biomaterials science particularly in the context of investigating and controlling the cellular response. While colloidal crystals have been used to generate a wide range of surface patterns, it has not been possible until now to quantitatively describe the degree of uniformity within such systems. In the present work we describe a novel approach to quantitatively assess the uniformity within binary colloidal assemblies based on image processing methods, primarily the Circular Hough Transform and distance calculations. We believe that the methodology presented here will find broad application in the field of colloidal crystals to quantitatively describe the integrity and homogeneity of assemblies.
Highlights
The interactions between a material surface and surrounding biological environments plays a crucial role in many biomedical device and tissue engineering applications [1,2]
Surface topography and chemistry at high lateral resolution are of great importance to govern the cellular response towards a material
We have developed a novel approach to quantitatively determine the degree of uniformity within binary colloidal crystals
Summary
The interactions between a material surface and surrounding biological environments plays a crucial role in many biomedical device and tissue engineering applications [1,2]. To control biointerfacial interactions through surface chemistry many sophisticated surface modification strategies have been developed. These approaches include the fabrication of polymeric coatings to prevent biofouling, such as the grafting of poly(ethylene glycol) [3,4,5], polyacrylamide [6,7,8], poly(N-hydroxy methacrylamide) [9]. It remains challenging with such approaches to incorporate multiple signals into the coatings and the precise lateral locality of these
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