Block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly has attracted considerable attention for many decades because it can yield ordered structures in a wide range of morphologies, including spheres, cylinders, bicontinuous structures, lamellae, vesicles, and many other complex or hierarchical assemblies. These aggregates provide potential or practical applications in many fields. The present tutorial review introduces the primary principles of BCP self-assembly in bulk and in solution, by describing experiments, theories, accessible morphologies and morphological transitions, factors affecting the morphology, thermodynamics and kinetics, among others. As one specific example at a more advanced level, BCP vesicles (polymersomes) and their potential applications are discussed in some detail.

A surfactant‐stabilized coordination strategy is used to make two‐dimensional (2D) single‐atom catalysts (SACs) with an ultrahigh Pt loading of 12.0 wt %, by assembly of pre‐formed single Pt atom coordinated porphyrin precursors into free‐standing metal–organic framework (MOF) nanosheets with an ultrathin thickness of 2.4±0.9 nm. This is the first example of 2D MOF‐based SACs. Remarkably, the 2D SACs exhibit a record‐high photocatalytic H2 evolution rate of 11 320 μmol g−1 h−1 via water splitting under visible light irradiation (λ>420 nm) compared with those of reported MOF‐based photocatalysts. Moreover, the MOF nanosheets can be readily drop‐casted onto solid substrates, forming thin films while still retaining their photocatalytic activity, which is highly desirable for practical solar H2 production.

The discovery of graphene has triggered great interest in two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials for scientists in chemistry, physics, materials science, and related areas. In the family of newly developed 2D nanostructured materials, 2D soft nanomaterials, including graphene, Bx Cy Nz nanosheets, 2D polymers, covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and 2D supramolecular organic nanostructures, possess great advantages in light-weight, structural control and flexibility, diversity of fabrication approaches, and so on. These merits offer 2D soft nanomaterials a wide range of potential applications, such as in optoelectronics, membranes, energy storage and conversion, catalysis, sensing, biotechnology, etc. This review article provides an overview of the development of 2D soft nanomaterials, with special highlights on the basic concepts, molecular design principles, and primary synthesis approaches in the context.

This paper reviews the progress in the field of block copolymer-templated mesoporous materials, including synthetic methods, morphological and pore size control and their potential applications in energy storage and conversion devices.

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Vesicles have attracted considerable attention recently because of many potential applications as well as intrinsic interest in the structures. The incorporation of various particles into vesicle walls has also received attention. One of the unsolved problems, in this context, is the controlled incorporation of particles into only the central portion of the vesicle walls, i.e. approximately halfway between the external and internal interfaces. In this paper, we describe a general method for the incorporation of particles into only the central portion, i.e. central 10-20%, of the vesicle walls. The strategy involves the use, as coatings on the particles, of diblock copolymers of a structure similar to that of the vesicle formers, which allows the particles to be preferentially localized in the central portion of the walls.

The ability to pattern functional moieties with well-defined architectures is highly important in material science, nanotechnology and bioengineering. Although two-dimensional surfaces can serve as attractive platforms, direct patterning them in solution with regular arrays remains a major challenge. Here we develop a versatile route to pattern two-dimensional free-standing surfaces in a controlled manner assisted by monomicelle close-packing assembly of block copolymers, which is unambiguously revealed by direct visual observation. This strategy allows for bottom-up patterning of polypyrrole and polyaniline with adjustable mesopores on various functional free-standing surfaces, including two-dimensional graphene, molybdenum sulfide, titania nanosheets and even on one-dimensional carbon nanotubes. As exemplified by graphene oxide-based mesoporous polypyrrole nanosheets, the unique sandwich structure with adjustable pore sizes (5–20 nm) and thickness (35–45 nm) as well as enlarged specific surface area (85 m2 g−1) provides excellent specific capacitance and rate performance for supercapacitors. Therefore, this approach will shed light on developing solution-based soft patterning of given interfaces towards bespoke functions.

This work focused on the synthesis and aqueous self‐assembly of a series of novel hyperbranched star copolymers with a hyperbranched poly[3‐ethyl‐3‐(hydroxymethyl)oxetane] (HBPO) core and many linear poly[2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (PDMAEMA) arms. The copolymers can synchronously form unimolecular micelles (around 10 nm) and large multimolecular micelles (around 100 nm) in water at room temperature. TEM measurements have provided direct evidence that the large micelles are a kind of multimicelle aggregates (MMAs) with the basic building units of unimolecular micelles. It is the first demonstration of the self‐assembly mechanism for the large multimolecular micelles generated from the solution self‐assembly of hyperbranched copolymers.magnified image