Synthetic Self‐Limiting Structures Engineered with Defective Colloidal Clusters

Abstract

One of the key challenges in the study of self-assembly with synthetic particles is how to build finite-sized constructs that resemble self-limiting structures such as well-known proteins and biomolecules found in nature. Inspired by this concept, a novel method for realizing self-limiting selfassembly of colloidal clusters by establishing design rules to obtain desired final structures using a bottom-up assembly approach is presented. The constructs identified in this work will be "locked" in a well-defined configuration as the structure morphologies will not allow them to grow any further. The approach presented here provides two distinct advantages. First, the selflimiting characteristics of the resulting constructs are preserved no matter how many building blocks are present within the system. Second, the setup of interparticle interactions reflected by interaction matrices are much simpler compared to finite-sized structures of simple spherical particles which may require engineering pairwise interactions between as many particle types as the number of particles present in the system. The self-assembly process as well as phase transformation and kinetics of several intriguing finite-sized configurations are studied. Possible extensions of this concept to produce sophisticated multi-phased structures where different types of finite-sized and large assemblies may be present at once are also discussed.

A simple method to alter the binding specificity of DNA-coated colloids that crystallize

“…Colloid science and self-assembly have a range of open challenges that require access to building blocks with many orthogonal, tunable interactions to be addressed, such as the self-assembly of finite-sized structures of arbitrary shapes and sizes 5,19,38,39 and understanding the nucleation and growth of multi-component crystals. 17,40 DNA-coated particles are convenient building blocks to address these challenges because their DNA-hybridization-mediated interactions enable on the order of 100 orthogonal interactions 41 with tunable strengths.…”

Advances in Colloidal Building Blocks: Toward Patchy Colloidal Clusters

“…In addition, patchy colloidal clusters can be co‐assembled with spherical particles, [ 93 ] or colloidal clusters as well as other types of patchy clusters to prepare more complex colloidal structures. Figure 10b shows a simple strategy to form different colloidal crystals or the same symmetric one with binary patchy colloidal clusters.…”

“…In addition, patchy colloidal clusters can be co-assembled with spherical particles, [93] or colloidal clusters as well as other types of patchy clusters to prepare more complex colloidal structures. Figure 10b The patchy colloidal cluster can be further developed by varying the size and number of lobes or functionalizing patches in central cores differently with DNA via a post reprogramming process, [83,84,94,95] as shown in Figure 10c.…”

A simple method to reprogram the binding specificity of DNA-coated colloids that crystallize

“…We showed that DNA-coated particles with differing binding specificities could be prepared from a single feed stock by appending new domains to the DNA on the colloids and that the particles maintained their ability to crystallize after the DNA extension procedure. Colloid science and self-assembly have a range of open challenges that require access to building blocks with many orthogonal, tunable interactions to be addressed, such as the self-assembly of finite-sized structures of arbitrary shapes and sizes [18,40,41,5] and understanding the nucleation and growth of multicomponent crystals [42,29]. DNA-coated particles are a logical choice of building block because their DNAhybridization-mediated interactions enable on the order of 100 orthogonal interactions [43] with tunable strengths.…”