Multiple Day Update

Have been working in the lab but forgot to update the blog on my progress.
Last week I mixed a 6 mL solution of 2 micron latex spheres (1% wt, 2.4 mL latex solution, 3.6 mL nanopure water) and added SDS as a spreading agent (31.093 mM).  The solution was then sonicated fo 10 min and a piece of glass (microscope slide cover) was lowered about 4 mm into the solution and withdrawn at roughly 1 micron/second for 1 hour and 12.5 minutes.  The glass was allowed to dry for 140 min and then viewed under an optical microscope.  The film appeared to be a monolayer of latex spheres but was was patchy.  To help fix this I will be performing this again with a modified version of a Langmuir-Blodgett trough to keep an effective concentration of spheres near the surface of the glass as it's withdrawn.  Will add an update of this shortly.
I have also cleaned a silicon wafer using a plasma cleaner and ammonium hydroxide/hydrogen peroxide solution and cleaved a small area for AFM.  The RMS roughness of the silicon piece was determined to be 0.268 nm.