The field of self-assembly has moved far beyond early work, where the focus was primarily the resultant beautiful two- and three-dimensional structures, to a focus on forming materials and devices with important properties either otherwise not available, or only available at great cost. Over the last few years, materials with unprecedented electronic, photonic, energy-storage, and chemical separation functionalities were created with self-assembly, while at the same time, the ability to form even more complex structures in two and three dimensions has only continued to advance. Self-assembly crosscuts all areas of materials. Functional structures have now been realized in polymer, ceramic, metallic, and semiconducting systems, as well as composites containing multiple classes of materials. As the field of self-assembly continues to advance, the number of highly functional systems will only continue to grow and make increasingly greater impacts in both the consumer and industrial space.

Self-assembly, a process in which molecules, polymers, and particles are driven by local interactions to organize into patterns and functional structures, is being exploited in advancing silicon electronics and in emerging, unconventional electronics. Silicon electronics has relied on lithographic patterning of polymer resists at progressively smaller lengths to scale down device dimensions. Yet, this has become increasingly difficult and costly. Assembly of block copolymers and colloidal nanoparticles allows resolution enhancement and the definition of essential shapes to pattern circuits and memory devices. As we look to a future in which electronics are integrated at large numbers and in new forms for the Internet of Things and wearable and implantable technologies, we also explore a broader material set. Semiconductor nanoparticles and biomolecules are prized for their size-, shape-, and composition-dependent properties and for their solution-based assembly and integration into devices that are enabling unconventional manufacturing and new device functions.

Electrochemical energy-storage systems such as supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries require complex intertwined networks that provide fast transport pathways for ions and electrons without interfering with their energy density. Self-assembly of nanomaterials into hierarchical structures offers exciting possibilities to create such pathways. This article summarizes recent research achievements in self-assembled zero-dimensional, one-dimensional, and two-dimensional nanomaterials, ordered pore structure materials, and the interfaces between these. We analyze how self-assembly strategies can create storage architectures that improve device performance toward higher energy densities, longevity, rate capability, and device safety. At the end, the remaining challenges of scalable low-cost manufacturing and future opportunities such as self-healing are discussed.

One of the leading challenges in chemical sciences is the separation of complex mixtures. This is of vital importance for areas such as commodity chemical generation, where there is a need for the generation of high-purity chemical streams. Due to this, there has been a strong push toward the investigation of new materials capable of achieving chemoselective separation, with self-assembled materials having shown a great deal of promise for such separations. Many self-assembled materials are desirable candidates due to their low-cost synthesis, structural self-regulation, tunable properties, and an overall ease of composite material preparation. In this article, we aim to introduce examples of novel self-assembled materials and their practical usage in chemical separations. The specific approaches to fabricate these materials, as well as the strengths and shortcomings associated with their structures, will also be described. The strategies presented here will emphasize the production and employment of nonconventional self-assembled materials that exhibit a high potential for the advancement of the science of chemical separations.

Self-assembly enables hierarchical organization and compartmentalization of matter previously observed only in natural materials. Simple chemical motifs can be used to fabricate structures with diverse range of architectures and properties. The design principles, originally found in nature, are being implemented in self-assembled materials. The examples include high mechanical strength of bones and nacre achieved through hierarchical organic–inorganic organization, and DNA nanotechnology enabled by complementary bonding of DNA molecules. Building materials with controlled architectures from the nanoscale to the macroscale will lead to a combination of properties that will have significant impacts on fields ranging from tissue regeneration to optoelectronics.

Colloidal synthesis methods and ultrahigh-vacuum molecular beam epitaxy can tailor semiconductor-based nanoscale single emitters—quantum dots—as the building blocks for classical optoelectronic devices, such as lasers, light-emitting devices, and display technologies. These novel light sources have a basic resemblance of luminescent organic molecules, individually and in the aggregated forms. Highly ordered superstructures of quantum dots, obtained via scalable bottom-up self-assembly, exhibit diverse collective phenomena, such as band-like charge transport or superradiant emission. Superradiance emerges from coherent coupling of several emitters via a common radiation field resulting in a single giant dipole leading to short (sub-nanosecond) and intense (proportional to the squared number of coupled emitters) bursts of light. In this article, we review the basic principles and progress in the development of superradiant emitters with organic molecules and inorganic quantum dots, in view of their integration into classical and novel quantum light sources.

MXenes are a large family of two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides. The MXene family has expanded since their original discovery in 2011, and has grown larger with the discovery of ordered double transition-metal (DTM) MXenes. These DTM MXenes differ from their counterpart mono-transition-metal (mono-M) MXenes, where two transition metals can occupy the metal sites. Ordered DTM MXenes are comprised of transition metals in either an in-plane or out-of-plane ordered structure. Additionally, some DTM MXenes are in the form of random solid solutions, which are defined by two randomly distributed transition metals throughout the 2D structure. Their different structures and array of transition-metal pairs provide the ability to tune DTM MXenes for specific optical, magnetic, electrochemical, thermoelectric, catalytic, or mechanical behavior. This degree of control over their composition and structure is unique in the field of 2D materials and offers a new avenue for application-driven design of functional nanomaterials. In this article, we review the synthesis, structure, and properties of DTM MXenes and provide an outlook for future research in this field.