article published yes Carla Fernández-Rico author 492def71-6250-11f0-b278-d41dbd241b62 Roel P. A. Dullens author Hierarchically self-assembled materials—structures with order at multiple length scales—can be found everywhere. Examples range from collagen structures in human bones to engineered photonic materials. These structures usually assemble from monodisperse microscopic building blocks that interact via complex directional interactions. In this work, we show that hierarchical materials can, in fact, also be assembled from polydisperse building blocks and by entropic interactions alone. Our simple yet powerful assembly mechanism opens up avenues toward rationally exploiting the often undesired polydispersity of colloidal building blocks for programming entropy-driven self-assembly of hierarchical materials. National Academy of Sciences2021 eng 0027-8424 1091-6490 3438968110.1073/pnas.2107241118 11833 yes C. Fernández-Rico, R.P.A. Dullens, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (2021). C. Fernández-Rico and R. P. A. Dullens, “Hierarchical self-assembly of polydisperse colloidal bananas into a two-dimensional vortex phase,” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>, vol. 118, no. 33. National Academy of Sciences, 2021. Fernández-Rico, Carla, and Roel P. A. Dullens. “Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Polydisperse Colloidal Bananas into a Two-Dimensional Vortex Phase.” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>. National Academy of Sciences, 2021. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107241118">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107241118</a>. Fernández-Rico, C., &#38; Dullens, R. P. A. (2021). Hierarchical self-assembly of polydisperse colloidal bananas into a two-dimensional vortex phase. <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>. National Academy of Sciences. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107241118">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107241118</a> Fernández-Rico, Carla, and Roel P. A. Dullens. “Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Polydisperse Colloidal Bananas into a Two-Dimensional Vortex Phase.” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>, vol. 118, no. 33, e2107241118, National Academy of Sciences, 2021, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107241118">10.1073/pnas.2107241118</a>. Fernández-Rico C, Dullens RPA. Hierarchical self-assembly of polydisperse colloidal bananas into a two-dimensional vortex phase. <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>. 2021;118(33). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107241118">10.1073/pnas.2107241118</a> Fernández-Rico C, Dullens RPA. 2021. Hierarchical self-assembly of polydisperse colloidal bananas into a two-dimensional vortex phase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118(33), e2107241118. 222112026-06-30T06:31:50Z2026-07-15T07:02:38Z