MULOPLA · Multistage Logic Platforms

Multistage Logic Platforms

Microfluidic technologies - where tiny amounts of liquid flow together to generate unique environments for the formation of materials - offer great promise for guiding the assembly of molecular units, and significant advantages in crystal growth design and guided assembly are clear when compared to conventional synthetic methods. For this reason, the motivation of the present project was to construct microfluidic platforms, hereafter called Multistage Logic Platforms (MuLoPla), where site-specific crystal growth, different patterns, and multiple template assemblies could be feasible in a single chip and on a surface. MuLoPla accomplished the preparation of microfluidic chips in which the template growth of functional materials could be performed previously trapping precursor template structures: A materail was deposited on a surface in the chip channel using a pneumatic clamp, the surroundings were washed and then this template structure was reacted with chemicals flowing through the same chip channel. The material that is formed finally has features the size of nanometres, and can actually perform electronic functions in a working device. This breakthrough approach so called “microfluidic assisted ligand exchange” will undoubtedly have an impact in different fields considering that there are no examples reported so far which combine sequential chemical event treatments, a functional crystal template growth method from solution. Furthermore, the assembly of the material onto fully integrated systems on surfaces was achieved, opening the door to parallel assembly of materials on surfaces of functional electronic chips, using tiny amounts of material. Thus, with this approach at hand, devices can be prepared on-chip from solution, with functional matter located at specific locations and that require no further manipulation that might affect the molecular material that is used. Therefore, this approach is a powerful one for the fabrication of multicomponent complex nanomaterials and devices using a soft bottom-up approach. Website: www.icmab.es/chiral/projects

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