DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CS00117G

Summary
Building on our ability to design and synthesise molecules and our understanding of the noncovalent interactions between these molecules, the chemical sciences are currently entering the new territory of Systems Chemistry. This young field aims to develop complex molecular systems showing emergent properties; i.e. properties that go beyond the sum of the characteristics of the individual consituents of the system. This review gives an impression of the state of the art of the field by showing a diverse number of recent highlights, including out-of-equilibrium self-assembly, chemically fuelled molecular motion, compartmentalised chemical networks and designed oscillators. Subsequently a number of current challenges related to the design of complex chemical systems are discussed, including those of creating concurrent formation–destruction systems, continuously maintaining chemical systems away from equilibrium, incorporating feedback loops and pushing replication chemistry away from equilibrium. Finally, the prospects for Systems Chemistry are discussed including the tantalizing vision of the de novo synthesis of life and the idea of self-synthesising and self-repairing chemical factories.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
One of the challenges in Systems Chemistry is the comprehension of complex behavior developing an intuition associated with the ability to communicate the complexity both to peers and nonexperts. The development of this science can be obtained only with the combination of multiple interdisciplinar expertise such as synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, physical organic chemistry, computational modelling, advanced analytical chemistry.

Point of Strength
This review article deal with an illustration of some of the current frontiers in the very young field of System Chemistry starting from the state of art: A) Transient dissipative non-equilibrium self-assembly; B) Chemically fuelled molecular motion; C) Compartmentalised chemical networks: D) Designed oscillators; and discussing some current challenges with implementing formation/destruction systems and maintaining non-equilibrium steady-states, focusing the attention on engineering feedback systems and replication network