Nanocrystal Superlattices Grown in Nanoliter Microfluidic Plugs

Researchers at the University of Chicago Materials Research Science and Engineering Center developed a microfluidic platform to study self-assembly of colloidal nanocrystals into long-range ordered superlattices.  The team of scientists showed that confinement of nanocrystals in the nanoliter droplets (plugs) can be used for the optimization of growth conditions for nanocrystal superlattices and provides new insights into thermodynamics and kinetics of nanocrystal self-assembly.  They successfully prepared large superlattices from metallic, semiconducting and magnetic nanocrystals, as well as the first three-dimensional binary nanoparticle superlattices.