Shape and size play powerful roles in determining the properties of a material; controlling these aspects with precision is therefore an important, fundamental goal of the chemical sciences. In particular, the introduction of shape anisotropy at the nanoscale has emerged as a potent way to access new properties and functionality, enabling the exploration of complex nanomaterials across a range of applications. Recent advances in DNA and protein nanotechnology, inorganic crystallization techniques, and precision polymer self-assembly are now enabling unprecedented control over the synthesis of anisotropic nanoparticles with a variety of shapes, encompassing one-dimensional rods, dumbbells and wires, two-dimensional and three-dimensional platelets, rings, polyhedra, stars, and more. This has, in turn, enabled much progress to be made in our understanding of how anisotropy and particle dimensions can be tuned to produce materials with unique and optimized properties. In this Review, we bring these recent developments together to critically appraise the different methods for the bottom-up synthesis of anisotropic nanoparticles enabling exquisite control over morphology and dimensions. We highlight the unique properties of these materials in arenas as diverse as electron transport and biological processing, illustrating how they can be leveraged to produce devices and materials with otherwise inaccessible functionality. By making size and shape our focus, we aim to identify potential synergies between different disciplines and produce a road map for future research in this crucial area.

形状和大小在决定材料的特性方面起着重要作用；因此，精确控制这些方面是化学科学的一个重要的基本目标。特别是，在纳米尺度上引入形状各向异性已成为获取新特性和功能的有效方式，从而能够在一系列应用中探索复杂的纳米材料。DNA 和蛋白质纳米技术、无机结晶技术和精密聚合物自组装的最新进展现在可以前所未有地控制各种形状的各向异性纳米粒子的合成，包括一维棒、哑铃和线、二维和三维维片晶、环、多面体、星形等。反过来，这 使我们对如何调整各向异性和粒子尺寸以生产具有独特和优化性能的材料的理解取得了很大进展。在这篇综述中，我们将这些最新进展结合在一起，批判性地评估自下而上合成各向异性纳米粒子的不同方法，从而实现对形态和尺寸的精确控制。我们强调了这些材料在电子传输和生物加工等不同领域的独特特性，说明了如何利用它们来生产具有其他方式无法获得的功能的设备和材料。通过将规模和形状作为我们的重点，我们旨在确定不同学科之间的潜在协同作用，并为这一关键领域的未来研究制定路线图。