Preparation of ceramic well plates for combinatorial methods using the morphogenic effects of droplet drying

When droplets of a ceramic suspension dry on a non-wetting substrate, powder migrates to the periphery and builds there a wall of powder. This intriguing phenomenon, which is a nuisance in some processes, can be used to make arrays of ceramic wells on a ceramic substrate. These wells can, after sintering, be used to hold ceramic samples made from powder by controlled mixing of ceramic inks or could be made from ceramics that act as heterogeneous catalysts and used to hold reactants. The well plates can even be made from electrically conducting ceramics so that electrical property measurements can be made with a ground electrode.