Microfluidic-assisted growth of densely-packed arrays of nanoparticles

We use evaporation within a microfluidic device to extract the solvent of a dispersion of metal-based nanoparticles and to concentrate them until a solid made of densely-packed nanoparticles grows and totally invades the microfluidic geometry. It permits us to grow and shape-up solids, including superlattices and extended and thick arrays of nanoparticles, made of unary and binary dispersions, composites, and hetero-junctions between distinct types of nanoparticles. In all cases, the geometry of the final solids is imparted by that of the microfluidic device and their surfaces are flat within optical quality.