Packaging of Macroscopic Material Payloads: Needs, Challenges, Concepts, and Future Directions

The packaging of various material goods is a necessary element in numerous sectors, ranging from the food and pharmaceutical industry to biotechnology and medicine to space missions. Packaging has a multifaceted complexity inherently linked to both the properties of the materials involved and the requirements of the intended application. This level of complexity calls for the development of smart materials engineering solutions, necessitating crossing the boundaries between various science disciplines. Despite this, discussions of packaging often remain fragmented by industrial sector and rarely treat it as a materials science and interfacial engineering problem. Here, we introduce a unified framework that decomposes any packaging system into the payload, packaging material, and packaging strategy, and combines them into a conceptual packaging equation: packaging strategy = payload + packaging material. We focus on payloads with sizes (volumes) ranging from approximately 100 μm (~pL) to 1 cm (~mL) and review relevant packaging strategies developed. To offer a systematic analysis, we categorize packaging strategies by the phase of the payload, and provide illustrative examples involving liquids, gases, solids, and mixed‐phase payloads. Moreover, we discuss strategies based on their functionality (neutral, multifunctional, responsive) and packaging application location (in situ vs. ex situ). Our analysis is largely from the perspective of soft matter and interface science. Besides forming the basis of many of the examples discussed, these fields offer exciting opportunities for future research on packaging, both from a materials standpoint and a conceptual perspective. This includes the development necessary for smart packaging strategies that combine multifunctionality with responsiveness, as well as addressing traditional (e.g., cost‐efficiency, scaling up) and emerging (e.g., sustainability, end‐of‐life) challenges. We intend to stimulate creativity and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration by inviting researchers and engineers from diverse fields to contribute novel ideas for addressing a truly complex yet highly fascinating problem.