Nanofluidics: A New Arena for Materials Science

Abstract

A significant growth of research in nanofluidics is achieved over the past decade, but the field is still facing considerable challenges toward the transition from the current physics-centered stage to the next application-oriented stage. Many of these challenges are associated with materials science, so the field of nanofluidics offers great opportunities for materials scientists to exploit. In addition, the use of unusual effects and ultrasmall confined spaces of well-defined nanofluidic environments would offer new mechanisms and technologies to manipulate nanoscale objects as well as to synthesize novel nanomaterials in the liquid phase. Therefore, nanofluidics will be a new arena for materials science. In the past few years, burgeoning progress has been made toward this trend, as overviewed in this article, including materials and methods for fabricating nanofluidic devices, nanofluidics with functionalized surfaces and functional material components, as well as nanofluidics for manipulating nanoscale materials and fabricating new nanomaterials. Many critical challenges as well as fantastic opportunities in this arena lie ahead. Some of those, which are of particular interest, are also discussed.