Micro and nano structures including nanoparticle assembly with two and three dimensional periodicity can have potential applications in the areas of photonic crystals, chemical sensors, catalysts, and biotechnology. Patterned surfaces can be used as hard templates to assist the self assembly of not only relatively simple clusters but also complex and unique crystallization structures. Soft polymer templates have been used for directed self assembly of particle arrays on flat substrates. Binary colloidal crystals have been fabricated using two different sizes of colloidal particles. Further, micro and nano particles have been used as templates for the preparation of porous metallic nanostructures and monodisperse colloidal crystals. Even though nanochannel structures for nanofluidic applications have been fabricated using thermal oxidation or nanoimprint, there is a need for a simple and inexpensive approach for the fabrication of enclosed channels formed of nanoparticles.
Thus, there is need to solve these and other problems of the prior art and provide a simple method for the fabrication of nanochannel structures.