DNA-Programmed Mesoscopic Architecture

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how DNA-functionalized nanoparticles can be precisely programmed to self-assemble into complex mesoscopic structures with high yield, using design strategies that prevent metastable traps.

Contribution

It introduces a method for designing DNA-coated nanoparticles to reliably self-assemble into diverse, complex mesostructures with high efficiency.

Findings

Successful self-assembly of various shapes including cubes, pyramids, and detailed models.

Near-perfect yield achieved in numerical simulations.

Design strategies effectively avoid metastable configurations.

Abstract

We study the problem of the self-assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) into finite mesoscopic structures with a programmed local morphology and complex overall shape. Our proposed building blocks are NPs directionally-functionalized with DNA. The combination of directionality and selectivity of interactions allows one to avoid unwanted metastable configurations which have been shown to lead to slow self-assembly kinetics even in much simpler systems. With numerical simulations, we show that a variety of target mesoscopic objects can be designed and self-assembled in near perfect yield. They include cubes, pyramids, boxes and even an Empire State Building model. We summarize our findings with a set of design strategies that lead to the successful self-assembly of a wide range of mesostructures.