Magnetic handshake materials as a scale-invariant platform for programmed self-assembly

Abstract

Programmable self-assembly of smart, digital, and structurally complex materials from simple components at size scales from the macro to the nano remains a long-standing goal of material science. Here, we introduce a platform based on magnetic encoding of information to drive programmable self-assembly that works across length scales. Our building blocks consist of panels with different patterns of magnetic dipoles that are capable of specific binding. Because the ratios of the different panel-binding energies are scale-invariant, this approach can, in principle, be applied down to the nanometer scale. Using a centimeter-sized version of these panels, we demonstrate 3 canonical hallmarks of assembly: controlled polymerization of individual building blocks; assembly of 1-dimensional strands made of panels connected by elastic backbones into secondary structures; and hierarchical assembly of 2-dimensional nets into 3-dimensional objects. We envision that magnetic encoding of assembly instructions into primary structures of panels, strands, and nets will lead to the formation of secondary and even tertiary structures that transmit information, act as mechanical elements, or function as machines on scales ranging from the nano to the macro. magnetic handshake material | information encoding | specific interaction | programmable self-assembly

Phase separation in fluids with many interacting components

“…Recently, there has been tremendous progress in characterizing the sequence to phase-behavior relationship of individual proteins and nucleic acids (14,26,38), composition of different condensates (39)(40)(41), and regulated formation of condensates at specific locations, often through nucleation (42,43). Soft-matter colloidal systems (44,45), DNA-based nanotechnology (12,46), programmable magnetic materials (47), and multiplexed protein-design offer diverse attractive routes to both experimentally test predictions and serve as platforms to enable design of multi-phase fluid mixtures.…”

Phase-transforming metamaterial with magnetic interactions

“…Further advantages may be realized by combining additional fields beyond elasticity ( 26 ). Recently, the addition of field-responsive materials to metamaterials has been demonstrated to offer advantageous functionality ( 27 – 31 ). These demonstrations are impactful on their own, but more importantly, they introduce a broader paradigm with far-reaching implications.…”

Topological Design of Heterogeneous Self-Assembly

“…Self-assembly is an robust method for organizing loose building blocks to adopt desired structures [1]. A wide range of structures has been observed in synthetic selfassembly in both experiments and numerical simulations, from strictly periodic crystals [2] to quasicrystals [3], liquid crystals [4], polymers [5], nets [6], and finite clusters [7]. While initial investigations were guided by anecdotal evidence and limited availability of building blocks, later works deliberately optimize building block properties to assemble a desired target structure [8].…”