Microfluidics for Controllable Synthesis and Applications of Micro-/Nanomaterials

Dear Colleagues,

The emergence of microfluidics brings a variety of new and attractive features that conventional batch systems can hardly achieve. This Special Issue aims to consider the current technological advances of microfluidic approaches in the synthesis of functional micro-/nanomaterials (such as polymer, silica, gold, quantum dots, ZnO, iron oxide, and silver), as well as their applications for biomedical, catalysis, environment, and energy.

The past two decades have witnessed a considerable progress in the research and development of microfluidic systems for controllable synthesis and applications of functional organic and inorganic materials. From upstream materials synthesis aspect, microfluidics-based microreactors could offer many unique advantages over conventional flask-based batch reactors. For example, rapid reaction kinetics and dedicated control of reaction parameters enable fast screening and optimization of material properties; greatly reduced reactor dimensions and large surface-to-volume ratio of microchannels allow enhanced mass/heat transfer, leading to minimal batch-to-batch difference and high yields; and working at elevated temperatures and pressures while confining potentially active starting reactants gives great chances to create new materials. Therefore, microreactors have been widely employed for the controllable synthesis of polymers, gold, silver, quantum dots, silica materials, and so on. Similarly, from downstream application aspect, microfluidics-based microchips could provide many superior benefits over conventional batch approaches, such as high sensitivity and specificity, rapid response time, simple sample pretreatment, and low sample consumption. These features endow microchips with promising potential applications in sensing, catalysis, nanomedicine, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and many other fields.

This Special Issue collection will provide up-to-date information on microfluidics-enabled synthesis and applications of micro-/nanomaterials. This Special Issue welcomes all submissions focused on the present trends and future perspectives of microfluidic technology.

Dr. Nanjing Hao
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• microfluidics
• nanofluidics
• microreactor
• droplet flow
• laminar flow
• polymer materials
• colloidal materials
• biomedical application
• environment
• drug delivery
• energy
• biosensing