Microfluidics: Small 24/2009

The frontispiece is a minimalist schematic rendition of a microfluidic method for the preparation of anisotropic gold nanocrystals. Gold nanoparticle seeds, depicted by the orange band, and growth reagents, depicted by yellow and green bands, are controllably dispensed into picoliter aqueous droplets flowing in an immiscible oil (depicted in light blue) within a microfluidic device. Controlled mixing and particle growth within such picoliter “flasks” yield gold nanocrystals with tunable shapes, as seen in the TEM images presented in three circular insets. This method is an important step towards realizing scalable continuous-flow methods for shape-tailored metallic nanocrystal synthesis. For more information, please read the Full Paper “Droplet-Based Microfluidic Synthesis of Anisotropic Metal Nanocrystals” by S. Duraiswamy and S. A. Khan, beginning on page 2828.