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Colloidal assembly into chiral superstructures is usually accomplished with templating or lithographic patterning methods that are only applicable to materials with specific compositions and morphologies over narrow size ranges. Here, chiral superstructures can be rapidly formed by magnetically assembling materials of any chemical compositions at all scales, from molecules to nano- and microstructures. We show that a quadrupole field chirality is generated by permanent magnets caused by consistent field rotation in space. Applying the chiral field to magnetic nanoparticles produces long-range chiral superstructures controlled by field strength at the samples and orientation of the magnets. Transferring the chirality to any achiral molecules is enabled by incorporating guest molecules such as metals, polymers, oxides, semiconductors, dyes, and fluorophores into the magnetic nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents coupling morphological and magnetic anisotropy for assembling tetragonal colloidal crystals. Topics discussed include Morphological and magnetic anisotropy can be combined in colloidal assembly to create unconventional secondary structures; and show that magnetite nanorods interact along a critical angle, depending on their aspect ratios and assemble into body-centered tetragonal colloidal crystals.