Patent ID: 8183300

Claim:
A method comprising: forming a microemulsion comprising a surfactant, an organic solvent, and water, wherein the water forms water droplets in the microemulsion and a size of each water droplet is defined by the equation: R = 3 ⁢ φ C s ⁢ Σ , where R is a radius of the water droplet, φ is a volume fraction of water in the microemulsion, C s is an amount of surfactant molecules per unit volume, and Σ is an area occupied by each surfactant molecule and is a function of a molar volume of the organic solvent; and adding a nanoparticle precursor material to the microemulsion for forming nanoparticles in the water droplets, wherein the nanoparticles formed in each water droplet have a size based on the size of each water droplet.