DNA polygonal cavities with tunable shapes and sizes

Communicating Supraparticles to Enable Perceptual, Information-Providing Matter

Materials are the fundament of the physical world, whereas information and its exchange are the centerpieces of the digital world. Their fruitful synergy offers countless opportunities for realizing desired digital transformation processes in the physical world of materials. Yet, to date, a perfect connection between these worlds is missing. From the perspective, this can be achieved by overcoming the paradigm of considering materials as passive objects and turning them into perceptual, information-providing matter. This matter is capable of communicating associated digitally stored information, for example, its origin, fate, and material type as well as its intactness on demand. Herein, the concept of realizing perceptual, information-providing matter by integrating customizable (sub-)micrometer-sized communicating supraparticles (CSPs) is presented. They are assembled from individual nanoparticulate and/or (macro)molecular building blocks with spectrally differentiable signals that are either robust or stimuli-susceptible. Their combination yields functional signal characteristics that provide an identification signature and one or multiple stimuli-recorder features. This enables CSPs to communicate associated digital information on the tagged material and its encountered stimuli histories upon signal readout anywhere across its life cycle. Ultimately, CSPs link the materials and digital worlds with numerous use cases thereof, in particular fostering the transition into an age of sustainability.

Constructing Large 2D Lattices Out of DNA-Tiles

The predictable nature of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) interactions enables assembly of DNA into almost any arbitrary shape with programmable features of nanometer precision. The recent progress of DNA nanotechnology has allowed production of an even wider gamut of possible shapes with high-yield and error-free assembly processes. Most of these structures are, however, limited in size to a nanometer scale. To overcome this limitation, a plethora of studies has been carried out to form larger structures using DNA assemblies as building blocks or tiles. Therefore, DNA tiles have become one of the most widely used building blocks for engineering large, intricate structures with nanometer precision. To create even larger assemblies with highly organized patterns, scientists have developed a variety of structural design principles and assembly methods. This review first summarizes currently available DNA tile toolboxes and the basic principles of lattice formation and hierarchical self-assembly using DNA tiles. Special emphasis is given to the forces involved in the assembly process in liquid-liquid and at solid-liquid interfaces, and how to master them to reach the optimum balance between the involved interactions for successful self-assembly. In addition, we focus on the recent approaches that have shown great potential for the controlled immobilization and positioning of DNA nanostructures on different surfaces. The ability to position DNA objects in a controllable manner on technologically relevant surfaces is one step forward towards the integration of DNA-based materials into nanoelectronic and sensor devices.

In silico modelling of DNA nanostructures

The rise of material science and nanotechnology created a demand for a next generation of materials and procedures that can transcend the shaping of simple geometrical nano-objects. As a legacy of the technological progress made in the Human Genome Project, DNA was identified as a possible candidate. The low production costs of custom-made DNA molecules and the possibilities concerning the structural manipulation triggered significant advances in the field of DNA nanotechnology in the last decade. To facilitate the development of new DNA nanostructures and provide users an insight in less intuitive complexities and physical properties of the DNA folding, several in silico modelling tools were published. Here, we summarize the main characteristics of these specialised tools, describe the most common design principles and discuss tools and strategies used to predict the properties of DNA nanostructures.

Large Chiral Nanotubes Self-Assembled by DNA Bricks

Synthesizing tubes of large diameters is important for materials science and nanotechnology but remains a largely unsolved challenge. We report herein an approach to program the width of DNA helical tubes by controlling the rigidity and curvature of repeating units via single-stranded bricks strategy. The rigidity of repeating units can be controlled by its thickness, and the curvature can be tuned by double-helical twist density. A single-step annealing allows for the fabrication of helical tubes with defined chirality and widths ranging from ∼50 to ∼550 nm.