Liquid metal (LM) materials, including pure gallium (Ga) LM, eutectic alloys and their composites with organic polymers and inorganic nanoparticles, are cutting-edge functional materials owing to their outstanding electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, extraordinary mechanical compliance, deformability and excellent biocompatibility. The unique properties of LM-based materials at room temperatures can overcome the drawbacks of the conventional electronic devices, particularly high thermal, electrical conductivities and their fluidic property, which would open tremendous opportunities for the fundamental research and practical applications of stretchable and wearable electronic devices. Therefore, research interest has been increasingly devoted to the fabrication methodologies of LM nanoparticles and their functional composites. In this review, we intend to present an overview of the state-of-art protocols for the synthesis of Ga-based materials, to introduce their potential applications in the fields ranging from wearable electronics, energy storage batteries and energy harvesting devices to bio-applications, and to discuss challenges and opportunities in future studies.

The exploitation of new methods to control material structure has historically been dominating the material science. The bottom-up self-assembly strategy by taking atom/molecule/ensembles in nanoscale as building blocks and crystallization as a driving force bring hope for material fabrication. DNA-grafted nanoparticle has emerged as a “programmable atom equivalent” and was employed for the assembly of hierarchically ordered three-dimensional superlattice with novel properties and studying the unknown assembly mechanism due to its programmability and versatility in the binding capabilities. In this review, we highlight the assembly strategies and rules of DNA-grafted three-dimensional superlattice, dynamic assembly by different driving factors, and discuss their future applications.

As an important component that constitutes all the cells and tissues of the human body, protein is involved in most of the biological processes. Inspired by natural protein systems, considerable efforts covering many discipline fields were made to design artificial protein assemblies and put them into application in recent decades. The rapid development of structural DNA nanotechnology offers significant means for protein assemblies and promotes their application. Owing to the programmability, addressability and accurate recognition ability of DNA, many protein assemblies with unprecedented structures and improved functions have been successfully fabricated, consequently creating many brand-new researching fields. In this review, we briefly introduced the DNA-based protein assemblies, and highlighted the limitations in application process and corresponding strategies in four aspects, including biological catalysis, protein detection, biomedicine treatment and other applications.