4. Self-Assembly of Nanodroplets in Nanocomposite Materials in Nanodroplets Science and Technology

Use of metal nanoarchitectures is increasing in electronics, diagnostics, therapeutics, sensing, and microelectromechanical systems due to their unique electromagnetic and physicochemical properties. This chapter examines physical, chemical, and hybrid methods to assemble metal nanodroplets in single- and multidimensional geometries and phases. Reductive self-assembly offers a route to economic, scale-able preparation of nanodroplets and stabilization on solid substrates that could lead to atom-level tune-ability. Enhanced control and real-time characterization have been used to uncover thermodynamic and transport mechanisms of nanodroplet self-assembly to enhance prediction and control of morphological features. Physicochemical principles of reductive nanodroplet self-assembly are examined to provide a framework to modulate local surface forces and control orderly self-assembly of metallic nanostructures.