Self assembling cluster crystals from DNA based dendritic nanostructures

Emmanuel Stiakakis (), Niklas Jung, Nataša Adžić, Taras Balandin, Emmanuel Kentzinger, Ulrich Rücker, Ralf Biehl, Jan K. G. Dhont, Ulrich Jonas and Christos N. Likos ()
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Emmanuel Stiakakis: Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-4)
Niklas Jung: University of Siegen
Nataša Adžić: University of Vienna
Taras Balandin: Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-7)
Emmanuel Kentzinger: Forschungszentrum Jülich
Ulrich Rücker: Forschungszentrum Jülich
Ralf Biehl: Forschungszentrum Jülich
Jan K. G. Dhont: Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-4)
Ulrich Jonas: University of Siegen
Christos N. Likos: University of Vienna

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Cluster crystals are periodic structures with lattice sites occupied by several, overlapping building blocks, featuring fluctuating site occupancy, whose expectation value depends on thermodynamic conditions. Their assembly from atomic or mesoscopic units is long-sought-after, but its experimental realization still remains elusive. Here, we show the existence of well-controlled soft matter cluster crystals. We fabricate dendritic-linear-dendritic triblock composed of a thermosensitive water-soluble polymer and nanometer-scale all-DNA dendrons of the first and second generation. Conclusive small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) evidence reveals that solutions of these triblock at sufficiently high concentrations undergo a reversible phase transition from a cluster fluid to a body-centered cubic (BCC) cluster crystal with density-independent lattice spacing, through alteration of temperature. Moreover, a rich concentration-temperature phase diagram demonstrates the emergence of various ordered nanostructures, including BCC cluster crystals, birefringent cluster crystals, as well as hexagonal phases and cluster glass-like kinetically arrested states at high densities.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27412-3

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27412-3

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