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Lattice engineering through nanoparticle–DNA frameworks

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Abstract

Advances in self-assembly over the past decade have demonstrated that nano- and microscale particles can be organized into a large diversity of ordered three-dimensional (3D) lattices. However, the ability to generate different desired lattice types from the same set of particles remains challenging. Here, we show that nanoparticles can be assembled into crystalline and open 3D frameworks by connecting them through designed DNA-based polyhedral frames. The geometrical shapes of the frames, combined with the DNA-assisted binding properties of their vertices, facilitate the well-defined topological connections between particles in accordance with frame geometry. With this strategy, different crystallographic lattices using the same particles can be assembled by introduction of the corresponding DNA polyhedral frames. This approach should facilitate the rational assembly of nanoscale lattices through the design of the unit cell.

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Figure 1: Lattice assembly through NP–DNA frameworks.
Figure 2: The formation of a NP–DNA 3D lattice with octahedral frames and the effect of NP–vertex linker length.
Figure 3: Diversity of NP superlattices assembled through DNA frames.
Figure 4: Cryo-STEM images for simple cubic (SC) (a1, a2) and body-centred-tetragonal (BCT) (b1, b2) lattices of NPs assembled with cubic and ESB frames, respectively.
Figure 5: Frame shapes (left) and the corresponding unit cells (right) of the experimentally observed lattices.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. Shih and Y. Ke for help with DNA octahedra design and useful discussions. We thank L. Bai for help with the cryo-STEM sample preparations. We thank D. Chen for assistance with schematic drawing. Research carried out at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-SC0012704. H.L. and T.W. were supported by a National Institute of Health R01 grant (AG029979).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

    Ye Tian, Yugang Zhang, Huolin L. Xin & Oleg Gang

  2. Biosciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

    Tong Wang & Huilin Li

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA

    Huilin Li

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  1. Ye Tian
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  2. Yugang Zhang
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  3. Tong Wang
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  4. Huolin L. Xin
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  5. Huilin Li
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  6. Oleg Gang
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Contributions

Y.T. and O.G. conceived and designed the experiments. Y.T. performed the experiments. Y.Z. contributed to the model fitting of the SAXS data. Y.T., T.W. and H.L. contributed to the cryo-EM imaging and reconstruction. Y.T. and H.L.X. contributed to the STEM imaging of the superlattice. Y.T., Y.Z. and O.G. analysed the data. Y.T. and O.G. wrote the paper. O.G. supervised the project. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Oleg Gang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Tian, Y., Zhang, Y., Wang, T. et al. Lattice engineering through nanoparticle–DNA frameworks. Nature Mater 15, 654–661 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4571

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