ABSTRACT
There are two fundamental approaches to the fabrication of nanomaterials. One can adopt the top-down approach where materials are reduced from a bulk solid down to nanostructures through methods such as etching or lithography. The other approach is to go ‘bottom-up’ and build nanostructures one atom or molecule at a time. Here, a method is required to manipulate these building blocks singularly or in small amounts in order to build up our desired nanomaterials. An extremely elegant, and successful, method is to promote self-assembly of nanoparticles in solution to obtain colloidal crystals. This is done by providing suitable chemical precursors, in the right chemical environment, in order to promote monomer formation and self-assembly.
