Comprehensive view of microscopic interactions between DNA-coated colloids

Fan Cui, Sophie Marbach, Jeana Aojie Zheng, Miranda Holmes-Cerfon and David J. Pine ()
Additional contact information
Fan Cui: New York University
Sophie Marbach: New York University
Jeana Aojie Zheng: New York University
Miranda Holmes-Cerfon: New York University
David J. Pine: New York University

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The self-assembly of DNA-coated colloids into highly-ordered structures offers great promise for advanced optical materials. However, control of disorder, defects, melting, and crystal growth is hindered by the lack of a microscopic understanding of DNA-mediated colloidal interactions. Here we use total internal reflection microscopy to measure in situ the interaction potential between DNA-coated colloids with nanometer resolution and the macroscopic melting behavior. The range and strength of the interaction are measured and linked to key material design parameters, including DNA sequence, polymer length, grafting density, and complementary fraction. We present a first-principles model that screens and combines existing theories into one coherent framework and quantitatively reproduces our experimental data without fitting parameters over a wide range of DNA ligand designs. Our theory identifies a subtle competition between DNA binding and steric repulsion and accurately predicts adhesion and melting at a molecular level. Combining experimental and theoretical results, our work provides a quantitative and predictive approach for guiding material design with DNA-nanotechnology and can be further extended to a diversity of colloidal and biological systems.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29853-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-29853-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29853-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().