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SELF-ASSEMBLY

Complexity from small molecules

Nature Nanotechnology volume 13, pages 979–980 (2018)Cite this article

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Chemical oscillations emerge during the chemically fuelled self-assembly of a perylene diimide derivative as a result of simple feedback mechanisms.

Oscillations in the concentrations of molecules and molecular assemblies play an important role in the functioning of the biological cell1. For example, microtubules in the cytoskeleton oscillate between periods of growth and collapse to maintain a dynamic network2. Likewise, before the division of the rod-shaped bacterium Escherichia coli, the concentration of a set of three proteins (the Min proteins) oscillates between the bacterium’s two poles in order to determine its centre and thereby ensure the formation of two equal daughter cells3. Inspired by such dynamic structures and functions in biology, supramolecular chemists have long been engineering molecules that can assemble into ordered structures. Recently, however, the field has focused on the formation of dynamic molecular structures that require constant dissipation of energy to exist4. The goal is to develop out-of-equilibrium self-assembly systems that show behaviour of a kind that we typically associate with living things. Now, writing in Nature Nanotechnology, Leira-Iglesias et al. report a system in which abiotic chemicals spontaneously oscillate between an assembled and a disassembled state in response to a flux of chemical energy5.

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Fig. 1: Chemical oscillations in self-assembling systems.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany

    Job Boekhoven

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  1. Job Boekhoven
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Correspondence to Job Boekhoven.

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Boekhoven, J. Complexity from small molecules. Nature Nanotech 13, 979–980 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0283-z

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