Micro/Nanofluidics and Structures Based Sensing, Material Processing and Energy Conversion

Dear Colleagues,

Micro/nanofluidics platform technology and templates with micro/nanostructures have attracted significant interest among the scientific community due to their novelty and have been applied in a wide range of areas, such as chemical/biological detection and analysis, drug screening, point-of-care testing, food safety inspection, environmental monitoring, synthesis of micro/nanoparticles, energy conversion, self-cleaning, etc. Thanks to its characteristic length in the micro/nano-scale, unique phenomena steer researchers to tackle issues at different angles with different strategies. Hence, micro-/nanofluidics-based resolutions/alternatives to conventional approaches have been constantly proposed and demonstrated, and the templates with micro/nanostructures having unique functions have been fabricated, even though it has been almost 40 years since their emergence. In this Theme Topic, the focus will be on sensing, material processing, and energy conversion via micro-/nanofluidics platform technology and/or utilization of templates with micro/nanostructures. For sensing, research topics related to various sensing techniques, such as fluorescence detection, surface plasmon resonance, Raman spectroscopy, electrochemical detection, etc., which are applied to detect chemical compounds, biological species or biomolecules such as DNA, proteins, cells, pathogens, glucose, and so on are welcome. Pressure sensing, temperature sensing, gas/liquid concentration sensing, etc. via using templates with micro/nanostructures are included in this subject as well. Since microfluidics provides chemical or biochemical microenvironments with controlled processing conditions, it allows producing materials with homogeneity at a shorter reaction time. Material processing covers the approaches to fabricate micro-/nanoparticles, crystals, fibers, chemical compounds, polymers, bio-inspired materials, etc. As for energy conversion, it includes subjects around fuel cell, blue energy, energy storage, energy absorption/actuation/harvesting, etc., and the fundamental studies. It is our pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript to this Theme Topic, including full papers, reviews, and short communications.

Prof. Dr. Yi-Je Juang
Dr. Yan-Cheng Lin
Prof. Dr. Li-Hsien Yeh
Prof. Dr. Yen-Wen Lu
Topic Editors