Fabrication of 2D ordered films of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV): Processing morphology correlations for convective assembly

Biological colloids, and in particular viruses, have demonstrated substantial potential as scaffolds for nanoparticle arrays. However, the large-area, low-cost, and rapid assembly of viruses, such as by traditional colloidal processing techniques, is not well-established. Systematic exploration of processing space (virus concentration, assembly speed, and substrate surface energy) for the convective assembly method enables the fabrication of films of rod-shaped viruses (tobacco mosaic virus, TMV) with a high degree of long-range order. Monolayer assemblies several centimeters in length are comprised of TMV aligned parallel to the direction of assembly. Increasing TMV concentration and reducing assembly speed resulted in well-ordered viral layering (N = 2 to N = 12); however, the top virus layer exhibits varying degrees of in-plane disorder.