In a number of cases, self-organisation is understood as any process that leads to the formation of any ordered structure within a system. In the case of intense inflow of energy from outside, spontaneous formation of organised dissipative structures arising from the system's evolution under highly non-equilibrium conditions (dissipative self-organisation) is possible. The family of self-organised dissipative structures includes spatially periodic convective systems, chaotic behaviour systems, certain types of dynamic fractal structures and periodic spatial-temporal structures (self-oscillations and sustained waves). An essential condition for the initiation of the self-organisation process is the presence of several (at least two) opposing gradient fields of the same dimensionality forming an energy minimum as a function of distance or time. There is a wide variety of self-organisation processes, with the most widely known of them being the Liesegang rings, the Marangoni effect, the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, and the Benard cells (see the Figure). Control of self-organisation processes is a fundamental problem, whose solution will enable the development of functional nanomaterials with predetermined physicochemical properties and the production of nanodevices based on such materials (see also "self-assembly").