Photo-printing of faceted DNA patchy particles

Jairo A.A. Diaz, Joon Suk Oh, Gi Ra Yi, David J. Pine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Patchy particles with shape complementarity can serve as building blocks for assembling colloidal superstructures. Alternatively, encoding information on patches using DNA can direct assembly into a variety of crystalline or other preprogrammed structures. Here, we present a tool where DNA is used both to engineer shape and to encode information on colloidal particles. Two reactive oil emulsions with different but complementary DNA (cDNA) brushes are assembled into CsCl-like crystalline lattices. The DNA brushes are recruited to and ultimately localized at the junctions between neighboring droplets, which gives rise to DNA-encoded faceted patches. The emulsions are then solidified by ultraviolet (UV) polymerization, producing faceted patchy particles. The facet size and DNA distribution are determined by the balance between the DNA binding energy and the elastic deformation energy of droplets. This method leads to a variety of new patchy particles with directional interactions in scalable quantities.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)10645-10653
Number of pages9
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume117
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - May 19 2020

Keywords

  • Colloids
  • Crystals
  • DNA

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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