Molecular-scale dissipative chemistry drives the formation of nanoscale assemblies and their macroscale transport.

Fuelled chemical systems have considerable functional potential that remains largely unexplored. Here we report an approach to transient amide bond formation and use it to harness chemical energy and convert it to mechanical motion by integrating dissipative self-assembly and the Marangoni effect in a source-sink system. Droplets are formed through dissipative self-assembly following the reaction of octylamine with 2,3-dimethylmaleic anhydride.