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Nature Chemistry (15 August 2008) | doi:10.1038/nchem.50

Colloidal assemblies: Diffracting droplets

Neil Withers

Crystalline arrays of colloidal particles — some pretty examples in nature are opals — have uses in photonics, coatings and sensing. They can be made by wet self-assembly, but these methods do not give robust control over the final particle shapes.