Hierarchical self-assembly offers elegant and energy-efficient bottom-up strategies for the structuring of complex materials. For block copolymers, the last decade witnessed great progress in diversifying the structural complexity of solution-based assemblies into multicompartment micelles. However, a general understanding of what governs multicompartment micelle morphologies and polydispersity, and how to manipulate their hierarchical superstructures using straightforward concepts and readily accessible polymers remains unreached. Here we demonstrate how to create homogeneous multicompartment micelles with unprecedented structural control via the intermediate pre-assembly of subunits. This directed self-assembly leads to a step-wise reduction of the degree of conformational freedom and dynamics and avoids undesirable kinetic obstacles during the structure build-up. It yields a general concept for homogeneous populations of well-defined multicompartment micelles with precisely tunable patchiness, while using simple linear ABC triblock terpolymers. We further demonstrate control over the hierarchical step-growth polymerization of multicompartment micelles into micron-scale segmented supracolloidal polymers as an example of programmable mesoscale colloidal hierarchies via well-defined patchy nanoobjects.

The concept of hierarchical bottom-up structuring commonly encountered in natural materials provides inspiration for the design of complex artificial materials with advanced functionalities. Natural processes have achieved the orchestration of multicomponent systems across many length scales with very high precision, but man-made self-assemblies still face obstacles in realizing well-defined hierarchical structures. In particle-based self-assembly, the challenge is to program symmetries and periodicities of superstructures by providing monodisperse building blocks with suitable shape anisotropy or anisotropic interaction patterns ('patches'). Irregularities in particle architecture are intolerable because they generate defects that amplify throughout the hierarchical levels. For patchy microscopic hard colloids, this challenge has been approached by using top-down methods (such as metal shading or microcontact printing), enabling molecule-like directionality during aggregation. However, both top-down procedures and particulate systems based on molecular assembly struggle to fabricate patchy particles controllably in the desired size regime (10-100 nm). Here we introduce the co-assembly of dynamic patchy nanoparticles--that is, soft patchy nanoparticles that are intrinsically self-assembled and monodisperse--as a modular approach for producing well-ordered binary and ternary supracolloidal hierarchical assemblies. We bridge up to three hierarchical levels by guiding triblock terpolymers (length scale ∼10 nm) to form soft patchy nanoparticles (20-50 nm) of different symmetries that, in combination, co-assemble into substructured, compartmentalized materials (>10 μm) with predictable and tunable nanoscale periodicities. We establish how molecular control over polymer composition programs the building block symmetries and regulates particle positioning, offering a route to well-ordered mixed mesostructures of high complexity.

There is an emerging quest for lightweight materials with excellent mechanical properties and economic production, while still being sustainable and functionalizable. They could form the basis of the future bioeconomy for energy and material efficiency. Cellulose has long been recognized as an abundant polymer. Modified celluloses were, in fact, among the first polymers used in technical applications; however, they were later replaced by petroleum-based synthetic polymers. Currently, there is a resurgence of interest to utilize renewable resources, where cellulose is foreseen to make again a major impact, this time in the development of advanced materials. This is because of its availability and properties, as well as economic and sustainable production. Among cellulose-based structures, cellulose nanofibrils and nanocrystals display nanoscale lateral dimensions and lengths ranging from nanometers to micrometers. Their excellent mechanical properties are, in part, due to their crystalline assembly via hydrogen bonds. Owing to their abundant surface hydroxyl groups, they can be easily modified with nanoparticles, (bio)polymers, inorganics, or nanocarbons to form functional fibers, films, bulk matter, and porous aerogels and foams. Here, some of the recent progress in the development of advanced materials within this rapidly growing field is reviewed.

Compartmentalization is ubiquitous to many biological and artificial systems, be it for the separate storage of incompatible matter or to isolate transport processes. Advancements in the synthesis of sequential block copolymers offer a variety of tools to replicate natural design principles with tailor-made soft matter for the precise spatial separation of functionalities on multiple length scales. Here, we review recent trends in the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers to multicompartment nanostructures (MCNs) under (semi-)dilute conditions, with special emphasis on ABC triblock terpolymers. The intrinsic immiscibility of connected blocks induces short-range repulsion into discrete nano-domains stabilized by a third, soluble block or molecular additive. Polymer blocks can be synthesized from an arsenal of functional monomers directing self-assembly through packing frustration or response to various fields. The mobility in solution further allows the manipulation of self-assembly processes into specific directions by clever choice of environmental conditions. This review focuses on practical concepts that direct self-assembly into predictable nanostructures, while narrowing particle dispersity with respect to size, shape and internal morphology. The growing understanding of underlying self-assembly mechanisms expands the number of experimental concepts providing the means to target and manipulate progressively complex superstructures.