Nanoarchitectonics for Hybrid and Related Materials for Bio-Oriented Applications

Atom/molecular-level controls in nanotechnology are important for the precise placement of components in device applications. Despite many advances, nanotechnology still uses simple systems to make precise atom/molecule-scale changes. This is in contrast with the many phenomena observed in biological systems, where there appears to be a well-designed integrative approach involving molecular units to achieve atomic- and molecular-scale changes. Inspired by nature, we introduced a novel concept-nanoarchitectonics-to develop nanoscale functional materials for bio-oriented applications. Nanoarchitectonics is a unified concept combining nanotechnology and methodologies in related research fields, such as supramolecular chemistry, self-assembly, and self-organization, to satisfy the major features of nanosciences for the creation of functional materials or even devices and machines. This concept guides the harmonized assembly of nanoscale objects into higher order functional materials. In this Feature Article, recent research activities are introduced regarding the development of advanced functional materials of hybrid and related architectures on the basis of nanoarchitectonics from diverse contexts of organic and inorganic materials: i) from biology (DNA-based hybrid); ii) from geology (clay-based hybrid); iii) from 0D nanotechnology (fullerene-based hybrid); and iv) from other nanoarchitectonics. Therefore, this Feature Article showcases some examples of the nanoarchitectonic concepts at work in diverse material types.