Patent ID: 8491668

Claim:
A method for surface-bonding particles to a non-planar surface of a substrate to produce a conformal coating comprising the steps of: (a) providing a substrate comprising a non-planar surface; (b) chemically modifying the non-planar surface to impart a surface charge; and (c) depositing complementary charged particles on the non-planar surface, producing the conformal coating of surface-bonded particles, wherein: the surface-bonded particles have cross-sectional diameters of 2-2000 nm, the average distance between adjacent surface-bonded particles across the entire non-planar surface is no greater than 10 times the largest cross-sectional dimension of any of the surface-bonded particles, and the attachment of the surface-bonded particles to the surface is through electrostatic self-assembly or covalent bonding.