"NANOPARTICLES: in orderly arrays, serve thin-film role"
All the fuss over nanoparticles might lead one to assume they are routinely being used to prepare thin films. But insolubility and the clumping it causes thwarted early attempts to turn nanoparticle laboratory results into usable devices. Now, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico say they've perfected a commercially feasible way for orderly arrays of nanoparticles to self-assemble, each insulated from the others by silicon dioxide. The technique will not only enable new devices, the researchers said, but could also solve one of the longest-standing problems with nanoparticles: forming orderly connections between micro- and nanoscale.
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