In their Dalton Transactions Perspective article, Michael Sailor and co-workers from the University of California, San Diego, USA, describe their recent work to develop a droplet delivery system based on microporous silica particles.  These materials can deliver reagents adsorbed within a pore of a particle, or attached via a droplet, and have many uses for digital microfluidics.

Digital microfluidics involves the manipulation of molecules and materials in discrete packages.  In order to avoid any losses of molecules due to adsorption to the walls of a delivery channel, the use of droplets to deliver precise quantities of a reagent is used.  These droplets can provide a degree of turbulent mixing, and in addition, their use does not require the design and fabrication of specific equipment.

Future work aims to incorporate sensors into the porous nanostrucutres.  The low toxicity of the nanostructures suggests use of sensor-containing nanostructures for in vivo diagnostic and therapeutic applications.