. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jul 1.

Published in final edited form as: Biomater Sci. 2015 Mar 3;3(7):894–907. doi: 10.1039/C5BM00006H

Table 1.

Design Constraints and Preparation Parameters in Shape Control for Different Nanoparticle Preparation Methods

Nanoparticle Preparation Method		Shapes Prepared	Range of Aspect Ratio	Polymers^†	Cargos
Lithography	PRINT	Rods, Cylinders, Cubes, Filamentous ^{14, 15, 18, 19}	1 – 60 ^{18, 19}	Polyethylene glycol, poly(lactic acid), poly(lactic acid-co- glycolic acid), proteins ^{15, 20, 21, 24}	Small molecule drugs, contrast agents, siRNA ^{17, 21, 25}
Lithography	S-FIL	Disks, Rods, Squares, Triangles ^28–30	1 – 8 ^{28, 29}	Polyethylene glycol ^{28, 29}	Antibodies, nucleic acids, small molecule drugs ^{28, 30}
Membrane stretching		Rods, Disks, Ellipsoids, Pills, Barrels, Bullets, Lenses ^{32, 33, 35}	1.5 – 15 ^{32, 37, 38}	Polystyrene, poly(lactic acid-co- glycolic acid) ^{33, 35, 38}	Antibodies, small molecule drugs ^{32, 35, 38}
Self assembly	Amphiphilic copolymers	Spheres, Rods, Filamentous, Vesicles, Toroids, Disks ^{43–45, 65, 88}	1 – >100 ^{44, 65, 88}	Polyethylene-block-polyethylene glycol, polycaprolactone-block- polyethylene glycol, poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid)- polyethylene glycol, poly(lactic acid)-block-polyethylene glycol, polystyrene-block-poly(acrylic acid) ^{39, 42, 44, 47, 65, 88}	Hydrophobic drugs loaded in the core ^{65, 66, 129}
	Nucleic acid base-pairing	Cages, Polyhedrons, Nanotubes ^{92, 95, 96, 106}	1 – 7 ^{92, 95, 106}	Single-stranded DNA ^{92, 97}	Imaging agents, small molecule drugs, siRNA, proteins ^102–106
	Complex core micelles	Spheres, Rods, Worms ^{120–122, 125, 126}	1 – 30 ^{122, 125, 126}	Polyphosphoramidate-block- polyethylene glycol, linear polyethylenimine-graft- polyethylene glycol, poly(glutamic acid)-block-polyethylene glycol, polylysine-block-polyethylene glycol ^{5, 115, 116, 125, 126}	Nucleic acids ^{5, 116, 125}