Hierarchical Multicomponent Inorganic Metamaterials: Intrinsically Driven Self‐Assembly at the Nanoscale

Abstract

Increasingly intricate in their composition and structural organization, hierarchical multicomponent metamaterials with nonlinear spatially reconfigurable functionalities challenge the intrinsic constraints of natural materials, revealing tremendous potential for the advancement of biochemistry, nanophotonics, and medicine. Recent breakthroughs in high-resolution nanofabrication utilizing ultranarrow, precisely controlled ion or laser beams have enabled assembly of architectures of unprecedented structural and functional complexity, yet costly, time- and energy-consuming high-resolution sequential techniques do not operate effectively at industry-required scale. Inspired by the fictional Baron Munchausen's fruitless attempt to pull himself up, it is demonstrated that metamaterials can undergo intrinsically driven self-assembly, metaphorically pulling themselves up into existence. These internal drivers hold a key to unlocking the potential of metamaterials and mapping a new direction for the large-area, cost-efficient self-organized fabrication of practical devices. A systematic exploration of these efforts is presently missing, and the driving forces governing the intrinsically driven self-assembly are yet to be fully understood. Here, recent progress in the self-organized formation and self-propelled growth of complex hierarchical multicomponent metamaterials is reviewed, with emphasis on key principles, salient features, and potential limitations of this family of approaches. Special stress is placed on self-assembly driven by plasma, current in liquid, ultrasonic, and similar highly energetic effects, which enable self-directed formation of metamaterials with unique properties and structures.

Quantification of plasma produced OH radical density for water sterilization

“…The interactions between plasma‐generated species and water are critical to most applications of plasma in the fields of biology and medicine, and material synthesis, since collisions, mass transfer and complex chemical reactions between plasma‐generated particles and water molecules contribute to the creation and consumption of the OH radical, a highly‐reactive species that significantly contributes to biological activity of medical plasmas. For optimization and real‐life applications of such plasmas, it is important to be able to accurately quantify OH radicals in the solution as a function of experimental conditions, such as processing gas and interface area.…”

New Self‐Organization Route to Tunable Narrowband Optical Filters and Polarizers Demonstrated with ZnO–ZnWO4 Eutectic Composite

“…Other bottom‐up methods which were utilized to manufacture novel optical materials include: colloidal chemistry, self‐assembled nanoparticle clusters, use of liquid crystals, laser‐induced self‐organization, use of anodized alumina templates, block copolymers, silicon‐based dielectric metamaterials, nanoparticles aligned in porous matrices, or a bottom‐up nanolithography …”

Plasmonic nanomaterial structuring for SERS enhancement

“…A three-dimensional (3D) hybrid hierarchical nanoscale construction allows the intrinsically driven self-assembly of metamaterials. 47 The 3D structure is more benecial than a planar one, especially in SERS, owing to the enormous surface area for target molecule immobilization and a distant track for light propagation in the third dimension. 48 In this study, we presented the drop-casting NSL of 100 nm PS nanospheres as the rst stage of SERS substrate production.…”