Electrostatic interaction regulated self-assembly of simple inorganic macroions into blackberry structures and their possible role as compartment systems in the origin of life

Self‐Organization of Iron Sulfide Nanoparticles into Complex Multicompartment Supraparticles

“…[38][39][40][41][42][43] To address these problems and to develop a generalized scalable approach for their synthesis, one can utilize an intrinsic ability of inorganic NPs to self-assemble. [44] In fact, the selforganization behavior of metals, semiconductors, or ceramic NPs replicates that of nanoscale biological components, [45][46][47][48][49] imparting them with the chemical and thermal robustness of inorganic materials. Utilization of NPs with various geometrical symmetries combined with the non-classical crystallization processes, [47,50] can also expand the variety of possible structures and complex geometries.…”

“…However, the prior studies on self-assembly typically lead to nanostructured solids and semi-infinite nanoassemblies, such as chains, [47,54] sheets, [55] superlattices [56] and ribbons, [57] rather than to compartmentalized particles of specific dimensions. Recently, self-assembly pathways based on electrostatic self-limitation to terminal assemblies with specific dimensions, such as nanoshells, [3,58] helices, [59][60][61] nanostars, [62] rings, [63] blackberries [44] and supraparticles (SPs), [64][65][66][67][68] were found. This study explicitly shows the self-organization of FeS 2 NPs into multicompartment supraparticle (mSP) that has not been observed before.…”