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Making Things by Self-Assembly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Mila Boncheva  and
George M. Whitesides
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Abstract

Self-assembly—the spontaneous generation of order in systems of components—is ubiquitous in chemistry; in biology, it generates much of the functionality of the living cell. Self-assembly is relatively unused in microfabrication, although it offers opportunities to simplify processes, lower costs, develop new processes, use components too small to be manipulated robotically, integrate components made using incompatible technologies, and generate structures in three dimensions and on curved surfaces. The major limitations to the self-assembly of micrometer- to millimeter-sized components (mesoscale self-assembly) do not seem to be intrinsic, but rather operational: selfassembly can, in fact, be reliable and insensitive to small process variations, but fabricating the small, complex, functional components that future applications may require will necessitate the development of new methodologies. Proof-of-concept experiments in mesoscale self-assembly demonstrate that this technique poses fascinating scientific and technical challenges and offers the potential to provide access to hard-to-fabricate structures.

Keywords

biomimetic materialselectronic materialsmesoscalemicrofabricationoptical materialsself-assemblysurface chemistrytemplating
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 30 , Issue 10: Self-Assembly in Materials Synthesis , October 2005 , pp. 736 - 742
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

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