  By means of multiscale molecular simulations, we show that telechelic-star
polymers are a simple, robust and tunable system, which hierarchically
self-assembles first into soft-patchy particles and then into targeted
crystalline structures. The self-aggregating patchy behavior can be fully
controlled by the number of arms per star and by the fraction of attractive
monomeric units at the free ends of the arms. Such self-assembled soft-patchy
particles while forming, upon augmenting density, gel-like percolating networks
and stable ordered structures, preserve properties as particle size, number and
arrangement of patches per particle. In particular, we demonstrate that the
flexibility inherent in the soft-patchy particles brings forward a novel
mechanism that leads to the stabilisation of diamond and simple cubic crystals
over a wide range of densities, and for molecular sizes ranging from about 10
nm up to the micrometer scale.
