Spontaneous hierarchical self-organization of nanometre-scale subunits into higher-level complex structures is ubiquitous in nature. The creation of synthetic nanomaterials that mimic the self-organization of complex superstructures commonly seen in biomolecules has proved challenging due to the lack of biomolecule-like building blocks that feature versatile, programmable interactions to render structural complexity. In this study, highly aligned structures are obtained from an organic–inorganic mesophase composed of monodisperse Cd₃₇S₁₈ magic-size cluster building blocks. Impressively, structural alignment spans over six orders of magnitude in length scale: nanoscale magic-size clusters arrange into a hexagonal geometry organized inside micrometre-sized filaments; self-assembly of these filaments leads to fibres that then organize into uniform arrays of centimetre-scale bands with well-defined surface periodicity. Enhanced patterning can be achieved by controlling processing conditions, resulting in bullseye and ‘zigzag’ stacking patterns with periodicity in two directions. Overall, we demonstrate that colloidal nanomaterials can exhibit a high level of self-organization behaviour at macroscopic-length scales.

纳米级亚基自发分层自组织成更高层次的复杂结构在自然界中普遍存在。事实证明，模拟生物分子中常见的复杂超结构自组织的合成纳米材料的创建具有挑战性，因为缺乏具有多功能、可编程相互作用以呈现结构复杂性的类似生物分子的构建块。在这项研究中，从由单分散 Cd ₃₇ S _{18组成的有机-无机中间相中获得了高度排列的结构}神奇大小的集群构建块。令人印象深刻的是，结构排列在长度尺度上跨越了六个数量级：纳米级的神奇大小的簇排列成六边形几何形状，组织在微米大小的细丝内；这些细丝的自组装形成纤维，然后组织成具有明确表面周期性的厘米级带的均匀阵列。通过控制加工条件可以实现增强的图案化，从而产生在两个方向上具有周期性的牛眼和“锯齿形”堆叠图案。总的来说，我们证明胶体纳米材料可以在宏观长度尺度上表现出高水平的自组织行为。