Progress toward Nano Self-Construction

Eric M. Furst, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware, reports new findings of how tiny particle building blocks can be directed to self-assemble into specific structures.

Researchers have been working with nano-sized particles for years and assembling basic structures out of them, but nanoparticles may soon start assembling themselves. A research team at the University of Delaware is using a magnetic field to direct a mass of nanoparticles to disperse and then self-assemble into an array of crystalline formations.

This “guided phase separation” of nanoparticles has never taken place before, according to the researchers. This breakthrough signifies rapid progress in the use of nanoparticles as building blocks in new higher-performing functional materials, as well as products that build themselves.

Source: University of Delaware, www.udel.edu.