Table 1.

A Brief Review of the Various Fabrication Methods Used for Fabrication of Shape-Specific Nanoparticles [15]

Fabrication Techniques		Shapes	Smallest Dimension	Matrix Materials	Incorporated Functional Agents	References
Top-down approach	PRINT®	Cube, rod, circular disc, cone, hex-nut	100 nm	PEGDA, PLA, PPy, triacrylate, natural proteins	Cy3 dye, doxorubicin, Fe2O3, DOTA, protein	[34–39]
	Stretching Spherical Particles	Elliptical disc, oblate or prolate ellipsoid, worm, UFO	200 nm	Polystyrene, PLGA	FTIC-labeled bovine serum albumin	[40–42]
	Step-flash imprint lithography	Square, triangle, pentagon	50 nm	PEGD (M)A, PEGDA-GFLGK-DA	Streptavidin-Cy5 fluorescent dye, plasmid DNA	[43]
	Template Induced Printing (TIP)	Circular disc, bullet, rod, long worm	80 nm	SU-8, PEGDA, PEG-b-PLA	BODIPY® 493/503 fluorophore, SPIO (Fe3O4)	[44–46]
Bottom-up approach	Self-assembly	Long worm	22~60 nm	OE, OCL	Paclitaxel	[24]
		Worm	5 nm	Fe2O3	N/A	[27]
	Emulsion	Ellipsoid	28 nm	F8BT, PFO	N/A	[47]

PEGDA, polyethylene glycol diacrylate; PLA, poly(D,L-lactic acid); PPy, poly(pyrrole); PLGA, poly(D,L-lactic acid-co-glycolic acid); PEGDMA, polyethylene glycoldimethacrylate; PEGDA-GFLGK-DA, poly(ethylethylene glycol diacrylate-co-acrylated Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly-Lys); PEG-b-PLA, poly(ethylene glycol)-co-poly(D,L-lacticacid); OE, PEG-polyethylene; OCL, PEG-poly(1-caprolactone); F8BT, poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-cobenzothiadiazole); PFO, poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene); Gd-DOTA,Gd-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid; SPIO, superparamagnetic iron oxide; UFO, unidentified flying object.