Advances and Prospects of Self-Assembly of Nanomaterials in 1D to 4D via Electrospinning

Abstract

Self-assembly is a ubiquitous process in the natural environment, and electrospinning is a simple and convenient method to fabricate nanofibers. The self-assembly of electrospun nanofibers can produce nanomaterials in one-dimension (1D), two-dimension (2D), three-dimension (3D), and even four-dimension (4D). Techniques to fabricate 1D nanomaterials have been reviewed in this paper, especially for nanofiber and nanotube. The mechanism of the fabrication of 2D nanomaterials has been also introduced which is a specific arrangement of 1D nanostructures. The applications of 2D nanomaterials have been reviewed concerning energy devices, electronic devices, and biomedicine. Additionally, 3D nanomaterials, as more complex materials, are mainly utilized in tissue engineering and some in other fields. The advantages have been highlighted to suggest the development and prospect of 4D nanomaterials. Although 4D printing technologies still remain intractable, some aspects of improvement through electrospinning are possible in terms of responsive materials and self-growth materials.