ABSTRACT Nature extensively exploits matter and energy to sustain its structures and functions. Encouraged by the understanding of natural principles, researchers have been striving to develop “living” materials with self‐sustained and adaptive features under the supply of energy. The past decade has witnessed a variety of fuels to drive such energy‐dissipation out‐of‐equilibrium self‐assembly. Recently, gas molecules, featured by their simple polyatomic structure and gaseous properties, have been considered as “green” triggers to guide self‐assembly at thermal equilibrium. Nevertheless, whether gases could be used as a new family of fuel form to drive self‐assembly operated in a dissipative state remains puzzling. Here, commencing from equilibrium assembly, we systematically introduce a new concept, called dynamic gas bridge (DGB), by which it can allow gases as molecular elements to regulate self‐assembly processes and further serves as fuels to underpin the dissipative self‐assembled systems. By discussing the emerging examples, we highlight the unique advantages of gas fuel from the perspective of gas dissipation. The rise of such systems would bring new opportunities and pave the way for gas‐programmed living materials.
Liang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.