Atom-scale stencil patterns help nanoparticles take new shapes, learn new tricks
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Inspired by an artist’s stencils, researchers have developed atomic-level precision patterning on nanoparticle surfaces, allowing them to “paint” gold nanoparticles with polymers, or long chains of small molecules, to give them an array of new shapes and functions. The “patchy nanoparticles” developed by a multi-institutional team that includes researchers at Penn State can be made in large batches, used for a variety of electronic, optical or biomedical applications, or used as building blocks for new complex materials and metamaterials.
