Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Supramolecular chemistry specializes in non-covalent interactions. These weak and reversible forces are key to understanding biological processes and self-assembling systems, and to constructing complex materials and molecular machinery. Supramolecular chemistry has become a truly interdisciplinary research area, providing insights into and spurring developments across biology, chemistry, nanotechnology, materials science, and physics.
Four years ago we launched our collection on Supramolecular Chemistry and since then the field quickly developed further. We have updated this collection to highlight a selection of recent work published in Nature Communications. This collection is divided in four sections. The first two cover fundamental research, including synthesis and mechanistic insights, and building discrete assemblies. Section three showcases the potential of supramolecular chemistry in materials design, and the last section is dedicated to systems chemistry.
Knowledge about kinetically favored intermediate states in self-assembly processes can provide information about the self-assembly process but trapping these states without changing the reaction conditions is challenging. Here, the authors report a method for trapping metastable intermediates in self-assembly processes that is based on a photopolymerization strategy.
The feasibility of molecular assemblers as a device to control chemical reactions by positioning molecules with atomic precision is a matter of debate in the literature. Here the authors describe of a rudimentary synthetic molecular assembler, supramolecular aggregate of bifunctional surfactants produced by the reaction of two phase-separated reactants that produces polymers.
Regulation of self-sorted nanofiber network patterns in double network hydrogels comprising supramolecular nanofibers is considered as key for potential applications. Here, the authors describe a selective construction of two distinct self-sorting network patterns, by controlling the kinetics of seed formation with dynamic covalent chemistry.
In biology, information is stored and processed using highly evolved molecules in bistable states. Here, the authors demonstrate bistability in a synthetic system without the need for evolved biomolecules or autocatalytic networks.
Monodisperse and well-defined self-assembled materials can be obtained by fuel-driven temporally controlled supramolecular polymerization via the buffered release of monomers. Here the authors show that a redox-responsive transient dormant state of monomer generated by redox reaction can lead to supramolecular polymers with low dispersity.
Selection in compartmentalized self-replicating systems might provide a way for life to arise from abiotic environments. Here, the authors explore selection in a system of transient autocatalytic lipids and find that autocatalytic kinetics and phase separation are the key selection factors.
The dynamic structure of supramolecular polymers is challenging to determine both in experiments and in simulations. Here the authors use coarse-grained molecular models to provide a comprehensive analysis of the molecular communication in these complex molecular systems.
Dissipative self-assembly, which requires a continuous supply of fuel to maintain the assembled states far from equilibrium, is the foundation of biological systems but it remains a challenge to introduce light as fuel into artificial dissipative self-assemblies. Here, the authors report an artificial dissipative self-assembly system that is constructed from light-induced amphiphiles.