Issue 40, 2015

Celebrating Soft Matter's 10th Anniversary: Approaches to program the time domain of self-assemblies

Abstract

Self-regulating reconfigurable soft matter systems are of great interest for creating adaptive and active material properties. Such complex functionalities emerge from non-linear and interactive behavior in space and time as demonstrated by a plethora of dynamic, self-organizing biological structures (e.g., the cytoskeleton). In man-made self-assemblies, patterning of the spatial domain has advanced to creating hierarchical structures via precise molecular programming. However, orchestration of the time domain of self-assemblies is still in its infancy and lacks universal design principles. In this Emerging Area article we outline major strategies for programming the time domain of self-assemblies following the concepts of regulatory reaction networks, energy dissipation and kinetic control. Such concepts operate outside thermodynamic equilibrium and pave the way for temporally patterned, dynamic, and autonomously acting functional materials.

Graphical abstract: Celebrating Soft Matter's 10th Anniversary: Approaches to program the time domain of self-assemblies

Article information

Article type
Emerging Area
Submitted
07 Jūl. 2015
Accepted
23 Aug. 2015
First published
24 Aug. 2015

Soft Matter, 2015,11, 7857-7866

Celebrating Soft Matter's 10th Anniversary: Approaches to program the time domain of self-assemblies

L. Heinen and A. Walther, Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 7857 DOI: 10.1039/C5SM01660F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements