Self-Assembly of Single-Crystalline Nanomaterials for Integrated Electronics and Photonics

The scalable integration of single-crystalline nanomaterials remains a critical challenge in modern materials science, involving precise control of crystal nucleation, growth, and long-range ordered assembly throughout material processing. This Review highlights emerging strategies for inducing ordered nanomaterial assembly by constructing preferred nucleation sites. In the context of micro/nanopatterning, self-assembly occurs within confined spaces ranging from a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers, where ubiquitous boundaries and interfaces drive the system into a kinetically favorable far-from-equilibrium state. Even minute environmental perturbations can trigger random nucleation and uncontrolled assembly. We systematically investigate recent research advances across diverse assembly systems, including confined self-assembly, field-assisted crystallization, and interface-mediated growth, revealing how fine-tuning of thermodynamic parameters enables the transformation of localized regions from far-from-equilibrium to near equilibrium states during micro/nanoscale assembly, thereby achieving controlled assembly. Through in-depth analysis of molecular packing at the microscopic scale, mesoscopic morphology regulation, and macroscopic integration, we further elucidate the critical role of multiscale assembly of single-crystalline nanomaterials in enhancing device performance.