Out of equilibrium self-assembly

In 1944, Erwin Schrödinger posed the question “How can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?” Studying out-of-equilibrium chemical systems may take us closer to an answer.

Living matter should inspire the design of future nanosystems.

The search for emerging properties in far-from-equilibrium supramolecular systems is just beginning.

The merging of supramolecular chemistry and systems chemistry is beginning to unveil the richness of emerging physicochemical properties attainable by exploiting far-from-equilibrium systems, as this Review explains.

Experimentalists working on dissipative self-assembly systems should have a greater appreciation of thermodynamic concepts developed by theoreticians.

Recent theoretical advances are starting to elucidate how natural systems use dissipative self-assembly to build their complex nanomachinery and might point to ways in which the same principles can be exploited to fabricate analogous artificial nanoassemblies.

This Review discusses the integration of self-assembly, self-organization and reaction–diffusion processes for the creation of nanoscale synthetic systems inspired by living systems.

This Review discusses the fundamental challenges for making enzymatic reactions occur in surface- or volume-confined environments that may be suitable for technological applications in vitro and in vivo.

Biological motors and pumps are equilibrium devices that couple chemical, electrical and mechanical processes in an environment that is far from equilibrium. Recognition of the key role played by microscopic reversibility in their operation is a first step towards rational design of artificial molecular devices.