Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Materials science

Stirring stuff

Nature volume 448, pages 876–877 (2007)Cite this article

Take silicon, soak in water, add acid — and stir. This simple new recipe for the self-assembly of complex microstructures belies an involved sequence of hydrophobic, electrostatic and van der Waals interactions.

In folding its proteins and constructing its complex membranes, nature uses self-assembly: bathed in water or another liquid, tiny building-blocks come together by virtue of their shape and interactions. As they report in the journal Small, Onoe et al.1 adapt these natural processes for their own designs. They describe a method for assembling parts just 10 micrometres across into complex, three-dimensional objects, and go on to build up chains of interlocking rings. The research is another step towards the ultimate goal of building electrical or optical circuits, or even microscopic machines, from components at micrometre and smaller scales.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Self assembly in action.

References

  1. Onoe, H., Matsumoto, K. & Shimoyama, I. Small 3, 1383–3189 (2007).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Terfort, A., Bowden, N. & Whitesides, G. M. Nature 386, 162–164 (1997).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Breen, T. L., Tien, J., Oliver, S. R. J., Hadzic, T. & Whitesides, G. M. Science 284, 948–951 (1999).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Clark, T. D., Tien, J., Duffy, D. C., Paul, K. E. & Whitesides, G. M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123, 7677–7682 (2001).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hernandez, C. J. & Mason, C. J. J. Phys. Chem. C 111, 4477–4480 (2007).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chen, J.-H., Kallenbach, N. R. & Seeman, N. C. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 111, 6402–6407 (1989).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Taton, T. A., Mucic, R. C., Mirkin, C. A. & Letsinger, R. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122, 6305–6306 (2000).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, David J. Pine is at the Center for Soft Matter Research, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, New York 10003, USA. pine@nyu.edu,

    David J. Pine

Authors
  1. David J. Pine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pine, D. Stirring stuff. Nature 448, 876–877 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/448876a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/448876a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing