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Ion stencils used for synthesis of patchy nanoparticles

Metal nanoparticles have been made with polymer patches accurately placed on their surfaces — enabling them to self-assemble into otherwise inaccessible 3D structures.
By
  1. Ilona Kretzschmar

    1. Ilona Kretzschmar is in the Department of Chemical Engineering, The City College of the City University of New York, New York 10031, USA.

  2. Emanuela Bianchi

    1. Emanuela Bianchi is at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Vienna, Austria.

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Perfectly stacked displays of oranges in supermarkets illustrate a key concept in materials science: symmetrical objects with uniform surfaces assemble into close-packed structures that have a thermodynamically predetermined number of nearest neighbours (usually 12), irrespective of the material they are made of. However, less closely packed systems can be made by designing objects that interact with each other only at specific sites on those objects. For example, 3D-printed microscopic particles have been equipped with interacting patches of metal atoms by depositing the atoms through tiny stencils1. Such ‘patchy’ particles can self-assemble to form superstructures, opening the way to materials that have targeted patterns of pores, specific compositions or useful optical properties2.

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Nature 646, 551-552 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03127-z

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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