Self-Assembly in Micro- and Nanofluidic Devices: A Review of Recent Efforts

Self-assembly in microand nanofluidic devices has been the focus of much attention in recent years. This is not only due to their advantages of self-assembling with fine temporal and spatial control in addition to continuous processing that is not easily accessible in conventional batch procedures, but they have evolved to become indispensable tools to localize and assimilate microand nanocomponents into numerous applications, such as bioelectronics, drug delivery, photonics, novel microelectronic architectures, building blocks for tissue engineering and metamaterials, and nanomedicine. This review aims to focus on the most recent advancements and characteristic investigations on the self-assembly of microand nanoscopic objects in microand nanofluidic devices. Emphasis is placed on the salient aspects of this technology in terms of the types of microand nanomaterials being assembled, the principles and methodologies, as well as their novel applications.