TY - JOUR
T1 - Mix and match - A versatile equilibrium approach for hybrid colloidal synthesis
AU - Ben Zion, Matan Yah
AU - Caba, Yaelin
AU - Sha, Ruojie
AU - Seeman, Nadrian C.
AU - Chaikin, Paul M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge N. Oppenheimer and I. Kolvin for critical reading of the manuscript. This research was primarily supported by the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Sciences, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the DOE, Office of Sciences, Basic Energy Sciences, under award no. DE-SC0000989 (P. M. C.) (M. Y. B. Z.); and grant GBMF3849 from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (P. M. C.) used for DNA design (R. S.). Partial support was provided by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under grant DE-SC0007991 (P. M. C.) used for DNA origami design and data analysis. Partial support from CHE-1708776 and CCF-1526650 (N. C. S.) for laboratory supplies (R. S.) from the NSF, Grant RGP0010/2017 from the Human Frontiers Science Program, Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) W911NF-11-1-0024 from the Army Research Office (N. C. S.) for partial salary support (R. S.), MURI N000141912506 from the Office of Naval Research (N. C. S.) for partial salary support (R. S.), and the Diversity Undergraduate Research Initiative (DURI) New York University for equipment and salary support (Y. C.).
Publisher Copyright:
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2020/5/14
Y1 - 2020/5/14
N2 - Colloidal synthesis is a powerful bottom-up approach for programmed self-assembly which holds promise for both research and industry. While diverse, each synthetic process is typically restricted to a specific chemistry. Many applications however require composite materials, whereas a chemical equilibrium can typically only match one material but not the other. Here, a scalable general approach is presented, alleviating the dependency on a specific chemical reaction, by resorting to a mechanical equilibrium; an isopycnic density-gradient-step is tailored to form clusters with prescribed composition. Valence control is demonstrated, making dimers, trimers, and tetramers with purity as high as 96%. The measured kinetics shows a scaleable throughput. The density gradient step plays a dual role of both filtering out undesired products and concentrating the target structures. The "Mix-and-Match" approach is general, and applies to a broad range of colloidal matter: diverse material compositions (plastics, glasses, and emulsions); a range of colloidal interactions (van der Waals, Coulomb, and DNA hybridization); and a spectrum of sizes (nanoscale to multiple micrometers). Finally, the strength of the method is displayed by producing a monodisperse suspension from a highly polydisperse emulsion. The ability to combine colloids into architectures of hybrid materials has applications in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and photonics.
AB - Colloidal synthesis is a powerful bottom-up approach for programmed self-assembly which holds promise for both research and industry. While diverse, each synthetic process is typically restricted to a specific chemistry. Many applications however require composite materials, whereas a chemical equilibrium can typically only match one material but not the other. Here, a scalable general approach is presented, alleviating the dependency on a specific chemical reaction, by resorting to a mechanical equilibrium; an isopycnic density-gradient-step is tailored to form clusters with prescribed composition. Valence control is demonstrated, making dimers, trimers, and tetramers with purity as high as 96%. The measured kinetics shows a scaleable throughput. The density gradient step plays a dual role of both filtering out undesired products and concentrating the target structures. The "Mix-and-Match" approach is general, and applies to a broad range of colloidal matter: diverse material compositions (plastics, glasses, and emulsions); a range of colloidal interactions (van der Waals, Coulomb, and DNA hybridization); and a spectrum of sizes (nanoscale to multiple micrometers). Finally, the strength of the method is displayed by producing a monodisperse suspension from a highly polydisperse emulsion. The ability to combine colloids into architectures of hybrid materials has applications in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and photonics.
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U2 - 10.1039/d0sm00202j
DO - 10.1039/d0sm00202j
M3 - Article
C2 - 32364206
AN - SCOPUS:85084627239
SN - 1744-683X
VL - 16
SP - 4358
EP - 4365
JO - Soft Matter
JF - Soft Matter
IS - 18
ER -