Microarrays of spherical vessel-like colloids such as liposomes, polymerized vesicles and polyelec-trolyte capsules may find diverse applications in bioanalysis, biosensing, and combinatorial chemistry, for their capabilities in encapsulating chemical species such as drugs, biomolecules, probes, polymers and nanoparticles. This review reports the advances on methods for fabricating microarrays of the various hollow colloids. Related strategies are described in detail, including patterning techniques, surface modification methods, and tethering approaches such as oligonucleotide hybridization, receptor-ligand binding, covalent coupling and electrostatic interaction. The preliminary developments of functionalities of these arrays serving as sensor chips, microcarriers and microreactors are summarized as well.
