Macroscopic Non-Equilibrium Systems Sustained by Chemical Energy

One of the hallmarks of life is its non-equilibrium nature. Indeed, life is a state of matter that is maintained at the expense of energy. The chemical energy stored in thermodynamically activated but kinetically stable molecules is mainly used by nature1. Such high-energy molecules are used to synthesize other biological macromolecules, to activate biological machinery, including pumps and motors, and to maintain structural order2-3. Precisely consequently, one of the objectives of modern science is to understand how simple chemical mixtures transition from non-living components to truly living systems, as well as to generate new life-like materials and machines4-6. And it is well known that it is crucial for the development of artificial systems with life-like processes that knowledge of how chemical energy is transferred to biochemical processes. As such inspired by dissipative self-assembly driven by chemical fuels in nature, many synthetic supramolecular materials and networks in non-equilibrium states have been built and exhibit specific applications for temporal tuning, such as material adaptivity, transient catalytic controlled directional motion, and oscillatory behavior, among other functions. Synthetically constructed non-equilibrium chemical reaction systems are still a minority in the overwhelming number of chemical reactions. For instance, self-replication is not available as in the case of living organisms, functional applications are lacking, and reproducible addition of energetic chemical fuels leads to waste accumulation and collapse of the created non-equilibrium state.