Chemically Fueled Systems Chemistry Across Length Scales

ABSTRACT Inspired by nature, chemically fueled reaction cycles provide a general strategy to couple the dissipation of chemical potential to controlled changes in molecular structure, assembly, and material properties. Here, we review how kinetically stable yet thermodynamically activated fuels, catalytic activation–deactivation cycles, and supramolecular transformations integrate into a common design spanning molecular, assembly, and material length scales. We unify terminology across communities using diverse systems into state‐network descriptions that capture reciprocal coupling between chemical and supramolecular states. Central to function is kinetic asymmetry (feedback from the supramolecular state on reaction rates), which biases reaction flux and enables work‐like behavior, including directional motion, tunable lifetimes, self‐healing, oscillations, bistability, and spatiotemporal control of optical, mechanical, and catalytic properties. By contrasting single‐point versus multipoint activation and intramolecular versus intermolecular processes, we extract practical design principles and highlight open challenges, including quantitative kinetic descriptions at the assembly scale, management of waste accumulation under sustained fueling, and scaling chemo‐mechanical coupling toward higher‐order autonomous systems. Overall, this review provides a shared mechanistic language and a set of transferable guidelines for engineering functional, adaptive, chemically powered systems across all length scales.