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| Open AccessSupramolecular polymers form tactoids through liquid–liquid phase separation
Spontaneous liquid–liquid phase-separation behaviour of high-aspect-ratio fibrils, obtained from supramolecular polymerizations of synthetic components, forms tactoids by means of an entropy-driven pathway.
- Hailin Fu
- , Jingyi Huang
- & E. W. Meijer
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Article |
Functional composites by programming entropy-driven nanosheet growth
Following a micro-then-nano growth sequence to fabricate composites that are blends of block-copolymer-based supramolecules, small molecules and nanoparticles shows that high-performance barrier materials can be manufactured by means of entropy-driven assembly.
- Emma Vargo
- , Le Ma
- & Ting Xu
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Article |
DNA-based programmable gate arrays for general-purpose DNA computing
Generic single-stranded oligonucleotides used as a uniform transmission signal can reliably integrate large-scale DNA integrated circuits with minimal leakage and high fidelity for general-purpose computing.
- Hui Lv
- , Nuli Xie
- & Chunhai Fan
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Article |
Photonically active bowtie nanoassemblies with chirality continuum
Self-limited assembly of 'imperfect' chiral nanoparticles enables formation of bowtie-shaped microparticles with size monodispersity and continuously variable chirality to be used for printing photonically active metasurfaces.
- Prashant Kumar
- , Thi Vo
- & Nicholas A. Kotov
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Article |
Chiral assemblies of pinwheel superlattices on substrates
Chiroptically active pinwheel assemblies on substrates are formed by tetrahedral gold nanoparticles from the effective ‘compression’ of a perovskite-like, low-density phase, thereby enabling the manufacture of metastructured coatings with special chiroptical characteristics as identified by photon-induced near-field electron microscopy and chirality measures.
- Shan Zhou
- , Jiahui Li
- & Qian Chen
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Article |
Self-assembly of emulsion droplets through programmable folding
For a minimal model system of colloidal droplet chains, with programmable DNA interactions, it is shown that controlling the order in which interactions are switched on directs folding into unique structures.
- Angus McMullen
- , Maitane Muñoz Basagoiti
- & Jasna Brujic
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Article |
De novo design of discrete, stable 310-helix peptide assemblies
A study demonstrates the rational de novo design of water-soluble assemblies constructed from long 310-helical peptides, and details their characterization by circular dichroism spectroscopy, analytical ultracentrifugation and X-ray crystallography.
- Prasun Kumar
- , Neil G. Paterson
- & Derek N. Woolfson
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Article |
Electron-catalysed molecular recognition
A simple and versatile strategy is established to facilitate molecular recognition by extending electron catalysis for use in supramolecular non-covalent chemistry.
- Yang Jiao
- , Yunyan Qiu
- & J. Fraser Stoddart
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Article |
Transmembrane transport in inorganic colloidal cell-mimics
Hollow colloidal capsules, each with a single micropore, act as artificial cell-like structures that can capture and release payloads such as solid particles or bacteria from the external environment.
- Zhe Xu
- , Theodore Hueckel
- & Stefano Sacanna
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Article |
How to design an icosahedral quasicrystal through directional bonding
Model patchy colloids with directional bonding are designed that assemble into icosahedral quasicrystals through the propagation of an icosahedral network of bonds and may be realized using DNA origami particles.
- Eva G. Noya
- , Chak Kui Wong
- & Jonathan P. K. Doye
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Article |
Perovskite-type superlattices from lead halide perovskite nanocubes
Through precise structural engineering, perovskite nanocrystals are co-assembled with other nanocrystal materials to form a range of binary and ternary perovskite-type superlattices that exhibit superfluorescence.
- Ihor Cherniukh
- , Gabriele Rainò
- & Maksym V. Kovalenko
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Article |
Liquid-induced topological transformations of cellular microstructures
A two-tiered dynamic design strategy achieves topological transformations of two-dimensional polymeric cellular microstructures in a reversible and temporally controllable manner through exposure to different liquids.
- Shucong Li
- , Bolei Deng
- & Joanna Aizenberg
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Article |
Macroscopic materials assembled from nanoparticle superlattices
Polymer-covered inorganic nanoparticles are designed to self-assemble into micrometre-sized superlattice crystallites that can subsequently be built into freestanding centimetre-scale solids with hierarchical order across seven orders of magnitude.
- Peter J. Santos
- , Paul A. Gabrys
- & Robert J. Macfarlane
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Article |
Complex structures arising from the self-assembly of a simple organic salt
Frank–Kasper phases are observed in small organic molecules from the crystallization of fampridine hydrochloride into two distinct structures, indicating that complex self-assembled structures can arise from simple organic salts.
- Riccardo Montis
- , Luca Fusaro
- & A. David Rae
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Article |
Viscoelastic control of spatiotemporal order in bacterial active matter
Introducing viscoelasticity by addition of DNA into the fluid surrounding a suspension of Escherichia coli produces a giant oscillating vortex with a period controllable through the DNA concentration.
- Song Liu
- , Suraj Shankar
- & Yilin Wu
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Article |
Colloidal diamond
Self-assembly of cubic diamond crystals is demonstrated, by using precursor clusters of particles with carefully placed ‘sticky’ patches that attract and bind adjacent clusters in specific geometries.
- Mingxin He
- , Johnathon P. Gales
- & David J. Pine
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Article |
Self-templating assembly of soft microparticles into complex tessellations
A hexagonal self-assembled monolayer of soft microparticles acts as the template for a second layer of the same particles, forcing the formation of patterns with unexpected structural symmetries and complexities.
- Fabio Grillo
- , Miguel Angel Fernandez-Rodriguez
- & Lucio Isa
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Article |
A mechanism of ferritin crystallization revealed by cryo-STEM tomography
Cryo-STEM tomography of ferritin crystallization is used to reveal nonclassical evolution of crystalline order, indicating that it may be desolvation that drives the continuous evolution of order in crystallization.
- Lothar Houben
- , Haim Weissman
- & Boris Rybtchinski
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Article |
Constructing protein polyhedra via orthogonal chemical interactions
An inorganic chemical approach to biomolecular design is used to generate ‘cages’ that can simultaneously promote symmetry and multiple modes of protein interactions.
- Eyal Golub
- , Rohit H. Subramanian
- & F. Akif Tezcan
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Article |
Molecular heterogeneity drives reconfigurable nematic liquid crystal drops
Study of droplets containing nematic liquid crystal oligomers shows that a heterogeneous distribution of chain lengths plays a key part in driving reversible shape transformations with cooling and heating.
- Wei-Shao Wei
- , Yu Xia
- & A. G. Yodh
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Article |
Polymers with controlled assembly and rigidity made with click-functional peptide bundles
Designed tetrameric peptide bundles covalently connected end-to-end yield rigid, semiflexible and kinked chains, as well as hydrogel networks, providing a platform for synthetic biomaterials.
- Dongdong Wu
- , Nairiti Sinha
- & Darrin J. Pochan
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Article |
An antiaromatic-walled nanospace
The construction of a self-assembled nanocage composed of four metal ions and six antiaromatic walls is demonstrated, and the effect of antiaromaticity on the host–guest properties is investigated.
- Masahiro Yamashina
- , Yuya Tanaka
- & Jonathan R. Nitschke
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Letter |
Photoswitching topology in polymer networks with metal–organic cages as crosslinks
Using topology-switching metal–ligand cages to crosslink polymer networks produces gels whose chemical and mechanical properties can be radically and reversibly switched on irradiation.
- Yuwei Gu
- , Eric A. Alt
- & Jeremiah A. Johnson
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Letter |
Potential enthalpic energy of water in oils exploited to control supramolecular structure
Less than 0.01 per cent by weight of water in an alkane solvent is sufficient to interact with co-dissolved supramolecular polymeric chains by hydrogen bonding and modulate the structure of the assembly.
- Nathan J. Van Zee
- , Beatrice Adelizzi
- & E. W. Meijer
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Letter |
Freezing on a sphere
Freezing on a spherical surface is shown to proceed by the sequestration of defects into 12 icosahedrally coordinated ‘seas’ that enable the formation of a crystalline ‘continent’ with long-range orientational order.
- Rodrigo E. Guerra
- , Colm P. Kelleher
- & Paul M. Chaikin
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Letter |
Systems of mechanized and reactive droplets powered by multi-responsive surfactants
Droplets covered with surfactants that respond to multiple stimuli can assemble into hierarchical assemblies or non-spherical, patchy structures, mimic systems of mechanical gears, and even harbour sequences of chemical reactions.
- Zhijie Yang
- , Jingjing Wei
- & Bartosz A. Grzybowski
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Letter |
Self-assembly of tetravalent Goldberg polyhedra from 144 small components
Graph theory is used to guide the self-assembly of a complex consisting of 48 palladium ions and 96 ligands, with the topology of a tetravalent Goldberg polyhedron.
- Daishi Fujita
- , Yoshihiro Ueda
- & Makoto Fujita
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Letter |
Self-assembly of microcapsules via colloidal bond hybridization and anisotropy
The self-assembly of colloidal particles into hollow micrometre-scale capsules is achieved through the combination of anisotropic particle morphology, deformable surface ligands that re-distribute on binding and the mutual attraction between particles, suggesting a design strategy for colloidal self-assembly
- Chris H. J. Evers
- , Jurriaan A. Luiken
- & Willem K. Kegel
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Letter |
Self-assembly of coherently dynamic, auxetic, two-dimensional protein crystals
Mutants of the C4-symmetric protein RhuA were designed to self-assemble into two-dimensional crystalline lattices with precise spatial arrangements and patterns; the lattices of one of the variants are auxetic and deform perpendicularly to an applied force in a way that is contrary to what is generally expected in typical materials.
- Yuta Suzuki
- , Giovanni Cardone
- & F. Akif Tezcan
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Letter |
DNA rendering of polyhedral meshes at the nanoscale
A general method of folding arbitrary polygonal digital meshes in DNA uses a routeing algorithm based on graph theory and a relaxation simulation that traces scaffold strands through the target structures to produce complex structures with an open conformation that are stable under biological assay conditions.
- Erik Benson
- , Abdulmelik Mohammed
- & Björn Högberg
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Letter |
Modulation of hydrophobic interactions by proximally immobilized ions
Chemical force microscopy measurements show that the immobilization of specific cationic groups near non-polar domains produces pronounced changes in the domains’ hydrophobic interaction strengths: charged ammonium groups double interaction strengths, whereas guanidinium groups eliminate measurable interactions.
- C. Derek Ma
- , Chenxuan Wang
- & Nicholas L. Abbott
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Letter |
Hierarchical organization of chiral rafts in colloidal membranes
Inclusions dissolved in a colloidal membrane assemble into highly uniform finite-sized liquid droplets or rafts consisting of thousands of molecules.
- Prerna Sharma
- , Andrew Ward
- & Zvonimir Dogic
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Letter |
Self-assembly of hydrogen-bonded two-dimensional quasicrystals
Scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals that molecules of ferrocenecarboxylic acid can self-assemble into quasicrystal monolayers containing highly unusual cyclic hydrogen-bonded pentamers; this molecular framework could form the basis of a large range of supramolecular assemblies.
- Natalie A. Wasio
- , Rebecca C. Quardokus
- & S. Alex Kandel
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Letter |
DNA-mediated nanoparticle crystallization into Wulff polyhedra
Very slow cooling, over several days, of solutions of complementary-DNA-modified nanoparticles through the melting temperature of the system produces nanoparticle assemblies with the Wulff equilibrium crystal structure, thus showing that DNA hybridization can direct nanoparticle assembly along a pathway that mimics atomic crystallization.
- Evelyn Auyeung
- , Ting I. N. G. Li
- & Chad A. Mirkin
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Letter |
Guided hierarchical co-assembly of soft patchy nanoparticles
Different polymers can be used in combination to produce coexisting nanoparticles of different symmetry and tailored to co-assemble into well-ordered binary and ternary hierarchical structures.
- André H. Gröschel
- , Andreas Walther
- & Axel H. E. Müller
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Letter |
Linking synchronization to self-assembly using magnetic Janus colloids
Colloidal Janus spheres in a precessing magnetic field are shown to self-assemble into in-motion microtubes dynamically selected on the basis of synchronization rather than static energy minimization.
- Jing Yan
- , Moses Bloom
- & Steve Granick
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News & Views |
Self-assembly gets new direction
By controlling the placement of 'sticky' patches on particles, assemblies can be made that mimic atomic bonding in molecules. This greatly expands the range of structures that can be assembled from small components. See Article p.51
- Matthew R. Jones
- & Chad A. Mirkin
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Article |
Colloids with valence and specific directional bonding
A general method of creating colloidal particles that can self-assemble into ‘colloidal molecules’ is described: surface patches with well-defined symmetries are functionalized using DNA with single-stranded sticky ends and imitate hybridized atomic orbitals to form highly directional bonds.
- Yufeng Wang
- , Yu Wang
- & David J. Pine
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Research Highlights |
Proteins designed to self-assemble
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News & Views |
Continuity through dispersity
By making polymers whose central blocks have a range of lengths, materials have been prepared that contain separate, intermeshed domains extending throughout the material — a highly desirable structure.
- Richard A Register
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News & Views |
Shape matters
The ligand-mediated binding of colloid particles to each other is more effective if the particles are flat rather than curved. This finding opens up opportunities for the design of self-assembling materials.
- Sharon C. Glotzer
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Letter |
Reconfigurable self-assembly through chiral control of interfacial tension
Molecular chirality can be used to control interfacial tension in multi-component mixtures of chiral molecules, and tuning the chirality makes it possible to produce and manipulate self-assembling complex chiral structures.
- Thomas Gibaud
- , Edward Barry
- & Zvonimir Dogic
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Letter |
Biomimetic self-templating supramolecular structures
- Woo-Jae Chung
- , Jin-Woo Oh
- & Seung-Wuk Lee
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News & Views |
Catalytic accordions
Single chains of a specially designed polymer fold up in water to form an encapsulated catalytic chamber. This supramolecular assembly strategy mimics the one used by enzymes in nature.
- Nicolas Giuseppone
- & Jean-François Lutz
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News & Views |
Colour without colourants
Creating coloured polymer films without the use of pigments might seem impossible. But using miniature polymer spheres, and a novel assembly process, this feat has been accomplished over large film areas.
- Paul V. Braun
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News & Views |
Bigger and better synthesis
Nature constructs macromolecules with a precision that chemists have struggled to achieve. So a strategy that offers simple routes to large molecules, starting from small templates, could be the next big thing in synthesis. See Letter p.72
- Christopher Hunter
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Research Highlights |
Chemistry: Molecular matchmaking
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Letter |
Free-standing mesoporous silica films with tunable chiral nematic structures
Some beetle shells exhibit iridescence owing to the chiral organization of chitin making up the beetle's exoskeleton. Inspired by this, these authors fabricate thin glass films with helical pores introduced using a renewable cellulose template. The chiral structure allows the material, which can be free-standing, to selectively reflect light at a specific wavelength that can be tuned across the visible spectrum by altering the ratio of silica to cellulose during synthesis.
- Kevin E. Shopsowitz
- , Hao Qi
- & Mark J. MacLachlan
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News & Views |
Reconfigurable colloids
Colloid particles that form bonds to each other at specific orientations might self-assemble into all sorts of useful materials. The key — and the lock — to such binding has been discovered.
- Michael J. Solomon