Multiple emulsions are formed using poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic devices. The single emulsions (see image, left) are formed using a single drop maker with uniform wettability. The double, triple, quadruple, and quintuple emulsions (right) are formed using linear sequences of drop makers with alternating wettability.

Nanoparticles of CdS with radii of 4 or 50 nm are formed in a controlled fashion inside lipid giant vesicles. For this purpose, two protocols are developed: electrofusion of differently loaded vesicles and slow vesicle content exchange via lipid nanotubes (see image). The process of particle formation can be directly monitored with fluorescence microscopy. The approach can be used to form any kind of nanoparticle.

Self-assembled hyperthermophilic γ-prefoldin protein filaments are used to template different metal nanoparticle wires. Filaments are uniformly decorated with small nanoparticles along the length of the protein and exhibit good conductivity behavior when aligned across an electrode gap.

Gold nanowires are obtained by photoreduction of linear self-assemblies formed from Au(OH)₄⁻ and tetra-alkyl ammonium ions at the water–chloroform interface. They are dissipative nanostructures formed only under non-equilibrium conditions, which require continuous vectorial transport of ammonium ions across the interface. Nanocavities are observed in nanowires at almost regular intervals, which is a salient feature of dissipative structures.

Nanoparticle one-dimensional photonic crystals (see image) possess high reflectivity arising from Bragg diffraction of light incident on a photonic lattice comprising nanoparticle layers of alternating refractive index. The nanoparticle layers provide mesoporosity, allowing for the introduction of a variety of functional molecules and materials into the intrananoparticle voids, creating myriad opportunities for the development of new kinds of optical and optoelectronic devices.

Fluorescent silica nanoparticles incorporating unique ratios of energy-transfer dyes are synthesized and applied as colloidal barcodes to encode a microsphere-bound combinatorial peptide library. The affinity of the West Nile virus protease is profiled using this library with cleavage of the peptide detected by flow cytometry. The cleaved peptide substrates are sorted and then identified through decoding by confocal microscopy combined with spectral unmixing (see image).

A hollow victory: Hollow-sphere nanocrystals are fabricated by electron-beam lithography in a self-assembled luminescent NaYF₄:Yb,Er nanocrystal monolayer (see picture). The formation mechanism is a heat-induced inner acid-etching process. Pattern formation can be achieved with single-nanoparticle resolution. The 20-nm β-NaYF₄:Yb,Er nanocrystal monolayer acts as a data-storage medium.

Scratching the surface: A simple needle-scratching method (NSM) generates large-area catalyst patterns on solid substrates for the growth of densely aligned single-walled carbon-nanotube (SWCNT) arrays by chemical vapor deposition (CVD, see picture). A high density of well-aligned, ultralong SWCNTs is obtained on single-crystal quartz. This NSM could allow the fast, cheap, and large-area fabrication of CNT-based nanodevices.

Cells set alight: Ultrasmall triphenylphosphine-capped gold nanoparticles continuously generate reactive oxygen species, which trigger leakiness of mitochondria and cell necrosis. This is visualized by discharge into the cytoplasm of green monomeric JC-1 stain from mitochondria (see picture), where it exists as a red dimer in undamaged cells.

Using the X-ray crystal structure as a guide, the nanometric, ring-shaped protein TRAP can be modified so that, upon addition of reducing agent, it can spontaneously form long, regular, nanotubes with a 2.5-nm cavity (see image), which may have a wide variety of nanotechnological applications.

The selective binding of quantum-dot (QD)–DNA conjugates with their specific target sequence of various genes is demonstrated. Fluorescence in situ hybridization using QD-based probes shows the potential of detecting low-expressing genes often involved in various disease-related biological processes (see image). Quantitative image analysis of inducible genes shows good correlation with the quantification results obtained by real-time RT-PCR.

Flat bilayer sheets formed by the self-assembly of laterally tethered nanorod amphiphiles and their molecular analogs are predicted to fold into distinct helical structures depending on solvent conditions. Transformation between helical morphologies can be induced by switching solvent selectivity, as indicated by the color gradient in the arrows (see image).

Photothermal laser processing is a facile, powerful tool for rapid large-area micro- and nanopatterning of supported phospholipid membranes (see image). Despite a laser-spot diameter of a few micrometers, voids with diameters of 300 nm and below are fabricated. This opens up an avenue towards optical engineering of biointerfaces with subwavelength resolution.

Fabrication of ordered three-dimensional arrangements of gold-nanocrescent resonators by repeated nanosphere lithography is demonstrated (see picture). The mutual orientation between the single layers can be adjusted to give chiral metamaterials.

Gold nanocubes are assembled on substrates into clusters of varying numbers and ordering (see picture). Plasmon coupling among the gold nanocubes is investigated by dark-field scattering and electrostatic calculations. Gold-nanocube clusters exhibit various plasmon resonance modes, the energy and intensity of which depend on the number and ordering of nanocubes in the cluster.