Recent Developments in the Fabrication of Ordered Nanostructure Arrays Based on Nanosphere Lithography

Xueyong      Wei

doi:10.2174/187221010792483681

Abstract

Since it was invented two decades ago, Nanosphere Lithography (NSL) has been widely studied as a low cost and flexible technique to fabricate nanostructures. Based on the registered patents and some selected papers, this review will discuss recent developments of different NSL strategies for the fabrication of ordered nanostructure arrays. The mechanism of self-assembly process and the techniques for preparing the self-assembled nanosphere template are first briefly introduced. The nanosphere templates are used either as shadow masks or as moulds for pattern transfer. Much more work now combines NSL with other lithographic techniques and material growth methods to form novel nanostructures of complex shape or various materials. Hence, this review finally gives a discussion on some future directions in NSL study.

Keywords: Nanoparticles, Cancer Therapy, imaging, gold nanoparticles, liposomes, polymer nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, NP-based delivery, anti-cancer drugs, lipid-based, tumor-targeting moieties, NPs (GNPs), NPs (MNPs), micelles, Nano-scaled particles, therapeutic capabilities, reticuloendothelial system (RES), noninvasive imaging, drug instability, rapid leakage, poor storage stability, anticancer drugs, pharmacologic effect, transferrin-conjugated polymer NP, monitor tumor targeting efficiency, hyperthermic activity, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, gold nanorods (GNRs), nanoshells (GNSs