Self-assembly articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unravelling the mechanism of chirality transfer in supramolecular assemblies is important to understand the relationship between molecular chirality and supramolecular chirality. Here, the authors use nonlinear spectroscopy and molecular dynamic simulations to study the long-range chirality transfer in a self-assembled supramolecular system.

    • Yuening Zhang
    • , Xujin Qin
    •  & Zhen Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Different shapes of molecules or particles can exhibit various liquid crystal phases. The authors report on an experimental discovery of a so called splay-bend nematic liquid crystal phase in a colloidal system of bent silica rods.

    • Ramakrishna Kotni
    • , Albert Grau-Carbonell
    •  & Alfons van Blaaderen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-assembly of block-copolymers yields nanoscale structures in a facile way, but the diversity of structures is limited. Here, the authors demonstrate how block copolymer layering can be used to access new non-equilibrium morphologies.

    • Sebastian T. Russell
    • , Suwon Bae
    •  & Kevin G. Yager

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic supramolecular double-stranded helical systems that can undergo reversible unwinding are rare. Here, the authors report bis(indole)-based double helix systems that unwind in the presence of chloride, forming supramolecular ion channels; Addition of silver enables the regeneration of the double helix.

    • Debashis Mondal
    • , Manzoor Ahmad
    •  & Pinaki Talukdar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacterial cells utilize cholesterol-enhanced pore formation to specifically target eukaryotic cells. Here, the authors present a class of bio-inspired, cholesterol-enhanced nanopores which display anticancer activities in vitro.

    • Jie Shen
    • , Yongting Gu
    •  & Huaqiang Zeng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiroptic materials made of self-assembled nanomaterials are essential for advanced optical applications. Here, the authors show that macroscopic grinding can break the symmetry in achiral superlattices of inorganic nanorods, generating chiral superstructures.

    • Zhiwei Yang
    • , Yanze Wei
    •  & Zhijie Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Naturally derived biopolymers attracted great interest to construct photonic materials but traditional processing commonly results in non-uniform organization across largescale areas. Here, the authors report a uniform biophotonic organization of cellulose nanocrystals decorated with superparamagnetic nanoparticles enabling transformation from helicoidal cholesteric to uniaxial nematic phase with near-perfect orientation.

    • Xiaofang Zhang
    • , Saewon Kang
    •  & Vladimir V. Tsukruk

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In nature, HIV capsid consists of single class of protein unit by self-complementarity. Here, the authors find that a molecular tweezer forms a cyclic hexamer by its continuous host-guest behavior, and constructs a large cuboctahedron by hierarchical assembly.

    • Yuta Sawanaka
    • , Masahiro Yamashina
    •  & Shinji Toyota

  • Article
    | Open Access

    GTP-triggered release from drug carriers has huge potential in cancer therapy but current carriers suffers from off target release due to ATP also acting as a trigger. Here, the authors report on the development of a microtubule capsule which is engineered to be responsive to only GTP not ATP and demonstrate targeted drug delivery.

    • Noriyuki Uchida
    • , Ai Kohata
    •  & Takuzo Aida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Engineering peptide assembly that controls integrin ligand presentation on the molecular level possesses by far the highest ligand density, expanding the perspective of ligand-density-dependent modulation.

    • Xunwu Hu
    • , Sona Rani Roy
    •  & Ye Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biological membranes exhibit the ability to self-repair and dynamically change their shape while remaining impermeable but these defining features are difficult to reconcile with mechanical robustness. Here, the authors report on the spontaneous formation of a carbon nanoskin at the oil-water interface that uniquely combines self-healing attributes with high stiffness.

    • Enzo Bomal
    • , Paul Grandgeorge
    •  & Holger Frauenrath

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiral supramolecular assembly is an important strategy for the development of excellent circularly polarized luminescent (CPL)-active materials, but often they suffer from low quantum yield and luminescence dissymmetry factor. Herein, the authors we report a chiral coassembly process of achiral pyrene-based dyes leading to chiral excimers emitting with a high dissymmetry factor.

    • Yuxia Zhang
    • , Hang Li
    •  & Yixiang Cheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biomimetic materials are of interest but can often suffer from limitations caused by the non-native linkages used. Here, the authors report on the creation of amino acid constructed polyureas which can self-assemble into vesicles and nanotubes with aggregation induced fluorescence and the potential for drug delivery applications.

    • Yeqiang Zhou
    • , Fan Fan
    •  & Mingming Ding

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding structure-property relationship of dye arrays is of great importance for designing organic photonic and photovoltaic materials. Here, authors present a slip-stacked perylene bisimide array as a model system to investigate singlet fission mechanisms by depending upon interchromophoric interaction.

    • Yongseok Hong
    • , Maximilian Rudolf
    •  & Frank Würthner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite a promising water harvesting approach solar steam generation low efficiency remains a challenging obstacle. Here, authors present a macro- and microscopically reconfigurable and magnetically responsive assembly towards a dynamic evaporation system with improved performance and salt resistance.

    • Yajie Hu
    • , Hongyun Ma
    •  & Liangti Qu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The formation of nanostructures with chiral symmetry often requires chiral directing agents at a smaller length scale. Here, the authors report the self-assembly of 2D chiral superlattices from achiral tetrahedron-shaped building blocks.

    • Zhihua Cheng
    •  & Matthew R. Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The synthesis of stable chiral porous organic cages and the study of their chiral self-sorting properties is challenging. Here, the authors report axially chiral porous aromatic cages with high stability and solvent-controlled chiral self-sorting.

    • Dong-Xu Cui
    • , Yun Geng
    •  & Zhong-Min Su

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Signal processing for downstream functional and morphological adaptations is crucial for understanding and re-enacting features of living systems. Here, the authors show DNAzyme-containing, metabolic protocells that induce prototissue formation via chemical messenger communication due to in situ cleavage of upstream DNA signals.

    • Avik Samanta
    • , Maximilian Hörner
    •  & Andreas Walther

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-assembly and molecular recognition usually depend on strong, directional non-covalent interactions but also topography can play a role in the formation of supramolecular constructs which makes it nearly impossible to discern the potential of shape and motion in the creation of complexity. Here, the authors demonstrate that long-range order in supramolecular constructs can be assisted by the topography of the individual units even in the absence of highly directional interactions.

    • Joseph F. Woods
    • , Lucía Gallego
    •  & Michel Rickhaus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structural colors are often produced by periodic structured materials leading to the constructive interference of light waves. Here, the authors report control of structural color and light transmission via a colloidal gel and dynamic coloration with a precise wavelength selectivity over a broad range of wavelengths by taking advantage of the Christiansen effect.

    • Yuyin Xi
    • , Fan Zhang
    •  & Yun Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sequential energy transfer is ubiquitous in natural light harvesting systems, but most artificial mimics have unsatisfactory energy transfer efficiency. Here, authors synthesize a sequential energy transfer system with overall efficiency of 87.4% via supramolecular copolymerization mimicking the aggregation mode of bacteriochlorophyll pigments in green photosynthetic bacteria.

    • Yifei Han
    • , Xiaolong Zhang
    •  & Feng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The self-assembly of molecular knots in water is challenging. Here, authors report the self-assembly of a trefoil knot in water via imine condensation, without relying on external templates; the handedness of the trefoil knot is determined by the chirality of the bisamino precursor.

    • Ye Lei
    • , Zhaoyong Li
    •  & Hao Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several biomaterials have been promised as suitable candidates for photonic materials and pigments, but their fabrication processes have been limited to the small to medium-scale production of films. Here, the authors demonstrate a substrate-free process to fabricate structurally coloured microparticles via the confined self-assembly of a cholesteric cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) suspension within emulsified microdroplets.

    • Richard M. Parker
    • , Tianheng H. Zhao
    •  & Silvia Vignolini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dissipative self-assembly can serve as a controllable platform to exhibit temporal processes for various non-stimulus responsive properties but construction of light-fueled dissipative self-assembly structures with transformable morphology to modulate non-photoresponsive properties remains a challenge. Here, the authors report a light-activated photodeformable dissipative self-assembly system in aqueous solution as metastable fluorescent platform.

    • Xu-Man Chen
    • , Wei-Jie Feng
    •  & Quan Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studying organic molecular nanocrystals with electron microscopy has been challenging due to complex structures and radiation sensitivity. Here, the authors present 4D-scanning confocal electron diffraction, and demonstrate direct in situ observation of structural evolution of bulk heterojunction thin films.

    • Mingjian Wu
    • , Christina Harreiß
    •  & Erdmann Spiecker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic luminescent materials attract attention due to their wide application range, but many organic luminogens suffer from severe quenching effect in the aggregate state. Here, the authors demonstrate a macrocyclization induced emission enhancement by linking luminophores through methylene bridges to give a macrocycle.

    • Shuo Li
    • , Kun Liu
    •  & Chunju Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chirality transfer across length-scales is an intriguing phenomenon but connecting the properties of individual building blocks to the emergent features of their resulting large-scale structure remains challenging. Here, the authors investigate the origins of mesophase chirality in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions, whose self-assembly into chiral photonic films has attracted significant interest.

    • Thomas G. Parton
    • , Richard M. Parker
    •  & Silvia Vignolini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pure organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials become increasingly important but achieving red and near-infrared (NIR) RTP remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate that succinimide derived cyclic imides can emit RTP in the red and NIR spectral range with outstanding efficiencies of up to 9.2%.

    • Tianwen Zhu
    • , Tianjia Yang
    •  & Wang Zhang Yuan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Double-gyroid networks assemble in diverse soft materials, yet the molecular packing that underlies their complex structure remains obscure. Here, authors advance a theory that resolves a long-standing puzzle about their formation in block copolymers.

    • Abhiram Reddy
    • , Michael S. Dimitriyev
    •  & Gregory M. Grason

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active matter exhibits a range of collective behaviors offering insights into how complex patterns can emerge at different length scales. Here, Hsu et al. confine active filaments on the spherical surface of a lipid vesicle and observe the formation of off-equator polar vortices and jammed patterns.

    • Chiao-Peng Hsu
    • , Alfredo Sciortino
    •  & Andreas R. Bausch

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