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Journal ArticleDOI

Transient assembly of active materials fueled by a chemical reaction

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TLDR
The transient self-assembly of synthetic molecules into active materials, driven by the consumption of a chemical fuel is reported.
Abstract
Fuel-driven self-assembly of actin filaments and microtubules is a key component of cellular organization. Continuous energy supply maintains these transient biomolecular assemblies far from thermodynamic equilibrium, unlike typical synthetic systems that spontaneously assemble at thermodynamic equilibrium. Here, we report the transient self-assembly of synthetic molecules into active materials, driven by the consumption of a chemical fuel. In these materials, reaction rates and fuel levels, instead of equilibrium composition, determine properties such as lifetime, stiffness, and self-regeneration capability. Fibers exhibit strongly nonlinear behavior including stochastic collapse and simultaneous growth and shrinkage, reminiscent of microtubule dynamics.

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Citations
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Supramolecular Hydrogelators and Hydrogels: From Soft Matter to Molecular Biomaterials

TL;DR: This review focuses on various potential applications of supramolecular hydrogels as molecular biomaterials, classified by their applications in cell cultures, tissue engineering, cell behavior, imaging, and unique applications of hydrogelators.
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Emergent behavior in active colloids

TL;DR: Active colloids are microscopic particles which self-propel through viscous fluids by converting energy extracted from their environment into directed motion as discussed by the authors, where artificial microswimmers move forward by generating near-surface flow fields via self-phoresis or the self-induced Marangoni effect.
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Supramolecular materials based on AIE luminogens (AIEgens): construction and applications

TL;DR: The emergence of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) has significantly stimulated the development of luminescent supramolecular materials because their strong emissions in the aggregated state have resolved the notorious obstacle of the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect.
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Non-equilibrium supramolecular polymerization

TL;DR: Going beyond equilibrium polymerization is an exciting new direction in the field of supramolecular chemistry and the preparation protocol and mechanistic insights allow to identify each one of them.
Journal ArticleDOI

Control over differentiation of a metastable supramolecular assembly in one and two dimensions.

TL;DR: The capacity of a metastable porphyrin supramolecular assembly to differentiate into nanofibre and nanosheet structures is reported on, finding that the obtained nanostructures are electronically distinct, which illustrates the pathway-dependent material properties.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Self-assembly at all scales.

TL;DR: Self-assembling processes are common throughout nature and technology and involve components from the molecular to the planetary scale and many different kinds of interactions.
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Functional Supramolecular Polymers

TL;DR: The specific features of supramolecular polymers that can lead to applications in a variety of fields are reviewed, including: materials—in which processability and self-healing properties are of interest; biomedicine— in which the concerns are dynamic functionality and biodegradability; and hierarchical assembly and electronic systems—with an interest in unidirectionality of charge flow.
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Microtubule polymerization dynamics

TL;DR: This review describes progress toward understanding the mechanism of dynamic instability of pure tubulin and discusses the function and regulation of microtubule dynamic instability in living cells.
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Self-organization of microtubules and motors

TL;DR: It is shown that dynamic asters can also be obtained from a homogeneous solution of tubulin and motors, and it is demonstrated that the same final structure can be reached through different assembly ‘pathways’.
Book

Molecular Gels: Materials with Self-Assembled Fibrillar Networks

TL;DR: In this article, a two-state model of self-assembling chiral rod-like units is proposed to describe the growth and chirality amplification in Helical Supramolecular Polymers.
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