Self-sorting assembly of artificial building blocks

Self-assembly to build high-level structures, which is ubiquitous in living systems, has captured the imagination of scientists, striving to emulate the intricacy, homogeneity and versatility of the naturally occurring systems, and to pursue a similar level of organization in artificial building blocks. In particular, self-sorting assembly in multicomponent systems, based on the spontaneous recognition and consequent spatial aggregation of the same or interactive building units, is able to realize very complicated assembly behaviours, and usually results in multiple well-ordered products or hierarchical structures in a one-step manner. This highly efficient assembly strategy has attracted tremendous research attention in recent years, and numerous examples have been reported in artificial systems, particularly with supramolecular and polymeric building blocks. In the current review, we summarize the progress in recent years, and classify them into five main categories, based on their working mechanisms or principles. With the review of these strategies, we hope to provide not only some deep insights into this field, but also and more importantly, useful thoughts in the design and fabrication of self-sorting systems in the future.

Automated summary

Self-assembly is a common phenomenon in living systems, and scientists have been trying to emulate its intricacy, homogeneity, and versatility in artificial building blocks. Self-sorting assembly in multicomponent systems allows for the spontaneous recognition and spatial aggregation of the same or interactive building units, leading to well-ordered products or hierarchical structures in a one-step manner. This efficient assembly strategy has attracted significant research attention, particularly in artificial systems using supramolecular and polymeric building blocks.