Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States.
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
Nano Lett. 2022 Sep 14;22(17):6907-6915. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c01313. Epub 2022 Aug 19.
Assembly of DNA-coated colloids (DNACCs) provides a practical route to programming complex self-assembled materials at the micro/nanoscale. So far, the programmability of DNACC assembly has been extensively exploited internally using different DNA sequences or colloid geometry so that the assembly is mainly manipulated with single-particle spatial resolution such as in crystallization. In this Letter, we present an acoustic approach to externally programming the DNACC assembly with control of spatial resolution over larger scales. We demonstrate assembly of the DNACCs under different acoustic frequencies from stage to stage to produce hierarchical structures that are difficult to fabricate when using DNA coating alone. By programming the acoustic wave frequency, amplitude, and phase, colloidal structures with different morphologies can be assembled. The nonspecific driving force based on acoustic radiation forces at each stage allows our approach to be adopted for most colloidal systems without specific requirements on particle or medium properties.
DNA 包覆胶体（DNACCs）的组装为在微/纳米尺度上编程复杂的自组装材料提供了一种实用途径。到目前为止，DNACC 组装的可编程性已经通过使用不同的 DNA 序列或胶体几何形状在内部得到了广泛的利用，使得组装主要通过单粒子空间分辨率进行操作，例如在结晶中。在这封信中，我们提出了一种声学方法来对外编程 DNACC 组装，以实现更大尺度上的空间分辨率控制。我们展示了在不同声学频率下进行的 DNACC 组装，以产生仅使用 DNA 涂层难以制造的分层结构。通过编程声波频率、幅度和相位，可以组装具有不同形态的胶体结构。基于各阶段声辐射力的非特异性驱动力使得我们的方法可以应用于大多数胶体系统，而不需要对粒子或介质特性有特定的要求。
