MIT and University of Delaware researchers have disproved a twenty-year rule in nanotechnology by demonstrating that nanoparticle assembly does not require rigid molecular connectors.

Scientists previously believed that flexible connectors caused structures to collapse into disorder. But the team showed that super-flexible, charged polymer connectors let nanoparticles spontaneously reorganize and form customizable, open material structures. This flexible assembly method makes it easier to scale designer materials for applications in medicine, energy, and photonics.