Volume 14 Issue 1, January 2015

Two conceptual strategies for encoding information into self-assembling building blocks highlight opportunities and challenges in the realization of programmable colloidal nanostructures.

Understanding entropic contributions to common ordering transitions is essential for the design of self-assembling systems with addressable complexity.

The nucleation of a crystal within another can involve intermediate liquid nuclei.

Temperature can switch the thermodynamic phase of colloid–polymer mixtures by tipping the balance between competing attractive interactions induced by polymer depletion or adsorption.

Computer simulations of one-component three-dimensional icosahedral quasicrystals will help to understand the mechanisms that may stabilize them in experiments.

Janus ellipsoids self-assemble into self-limiting fibres that can be reversibly actuated by applying an electric field.

Circularly polarized light actualizes the formation of chiral twisted ribbons from achiral semiconductor nanoparticles.

This Review discusses the common structural motifs of a range of natural materials and the difficulties associated with mimicking these designs in the fabrication of synthetic structures with enhanced mechanical properties.

Photoelectron spectroscopy measurements uncover a singularity over a wide doping range in the cuprate superconductor Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δ, suggesting a competition between the charge-ordering and the superconducting phases.

A high-pressure reaction is used to convert benzene molecules to one-dimensional crystalline carbon nanostructures that show diamond-like sp³ bonding. These nanothreads are expected to have strength and stiffness greater than carbon nanotubes.

A bottom-up approach for producing metal–organic framework lamellae of micrometre lateral dimensions and nanometre thickness that can be incorporated into polymer matrices is now presented. These composite materials exhibit outstanding CO₂ separation performances on exposure to CO₂/CH₄ gas mixtures.

Experiments with colloidal nano- and microparticles and computer simulations show that, unexpectedly, confinement and entropy are sufficient for the formation of icosahedral crystalline clusters of up to about 100,000 particles.

The competition between colloidal interactions resulting from polymer bridging and polymer exclusion in polymer–colloid dispersions leads to their solidification both on heating and on cooling.

It is shown that circularly polarized light produces enantiomeric excesses, above 30%, of twisted nanoribbons self-assembled from racemic dispersions of CdTe nanoparticles.

Caloric effects in magnetic materials are promising for many applications. A significant barocaloric effect is observed in Mn₃GaN and shown to be promoted by frustration arising from its antiferromagnetism.

Ferroelectric switching is studied in PbZr_0.2Ti_0.8O₃ thin films. Nanotwinned ferroelectric domains with broadened switching characteristics are observed and control over ferroelectric switching is demonstrated.

Harnessing the optical properties of noble metals down to the nanoscale is crucial for fast information processing. Lateral confinement and delocalization of surface plasmons is now observed in self-assembled network chains of fused gold nanoparticles.

Heavy alkaline-earth hydrides could be of interest as ionically conducting electrolytes for electrochemical applications. Barium hydride is now shown to exhibit fast ionic transport of hydride ions in a high-temperature and high-symmetry phase.

Single-particle-resolution video microscopy of films of colloidal particles shows that solid–solid transitions between square and triangular lattices occur through a two-step nucleation mechanism that involves liquid nuclei.

A body-centred icosahedral quasicrystal has been assembled, by using molecular dynamics simulations, from a one-component fluid of particles interacting via a tunable, isotropic pair potential.

Experiments and computer simulations show that Janus ellipsoids can self-assemble into self-limiting fibres that have shape-memory properties and can be actuated by applying an external electric field.

Amphiphilic proteins act as building blocks for the de novo formation of membrane-based organelles within Escherichia coli. The organelles can be selectively functionalized in vivo with unnatural amino acids and hence may permit chemical reactions inside the cell that have not been possible so far.

Model colloidal systems provide insight into aspects of the structure and dynamics of particulate systems on a broad range of length and time scales. In this focus issue, we highlight recent developments in colloidal self-assembly and colloidal phase transitions.