Self-assembly soft matter components

The term self-assembly has become ubiquitous in materials science over the past few decades, particularly in the field of soft matter and in related fields at the convergence of soft and hard materials. It is important to define this concept here as it will be used frequently throughout this book. Self-assembly may be described as spontaneous molecular ordering resulting from the balance between entropic and intermolecular forces in a material. A self-assembled system or state is one that forms without external mechanical manipulation of the components. Instead, the elements of the material (molecules, particles, etc.) are subject to forces between these elements and thereby adopt a particular configuration by coming to an equilibrium state. 

Wang S, Zhang N, Ge X, Wan Y, Li X, Yan L, Xia Y. Song B (2014) Self-assembly of an azobenzene-containing polymer prepared by a multi-component reaction supramolecular nanospheres with photo-induced deformation properties. Soft Matter l(X27) 4833-4839... 

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