Multicompartment Particle Assemblies for Bioinspired Encapsulated Reactions

In recent years, interest in mimicking the complex hierarchical architectures and functionalities of biological systems and associated spatially confined reactions has led to the design and synthesis of a range of multicompartment particles. Multicompartmentalization allows the incorporation of a range of structures in a single particle, thus allowing optimization of physicochemical properties of the assembly (e.g., permeability, stability, stimuli-response) and various multiple, spatially separated reactions. In this Perspective, we describe particle-based multicompartment systems, detailing the building blocks and assembly approaches employed to produce each subcompartmentalized system. The properties that contribute to the performance of multicompartment systems in diverse applications are also discussed, with a focus on coupled enzymatic reactions in confined volumes. The challenges associated with these assemblies for encapsulated reactions are identified and further directions and plausible developments in the field are suggested.