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Abstract Photonic crystals—a class of materials whose optical properties derive from their structure in addition to their composition—can be created by self-assembling particles whose sizes are comparable to the wavelengths of visible light. Proof-of-principle studies have shown that DNA can be used to guide the self-assembly of micrometer-sized colloidal particles into fully programmable crystal structures with photonic properties in the visible spectrum. However, the extremely temperature-sensitive kinetics of micrometer-sized DNA-functionalized particles has frustrated attempts to grow large, monodisperse crystals that are required for photonic metamaterial applications. Here we describe a robust two-step protocol for self-assembling single-domain crystals that contain millions of optical-scale DNA-functionalized particles: Monodisperse crystals are initially assembled in monodisperse droplets made by microfluidics, after which they are grown to macroscopic dimensions via seeded diffusion-limited growth. We demonstrate the generality of our approach by assembling different macroscopic single-domain photonic crystals with metamaterial properties, like structural coloration, that depend on the underlying crystal structure. By circumventing the fundamental kinetic traps intrinsic to crystallization of optical-scale DNA-coated colloids, we eliminate a key barrier to engineering photonic devices from DNA-programmed materials.
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Inverse design of self-assembling colloidal crystals with omnidirectional photonic bandgaps
Open colloidal lattices possessing omnidirectional photonic bandgaps in the visible or near-visible regime are attractive optical materials the realization of which has remained elusive. We report the use of an inverse design strategy termed landscape engineering that rationally sculpts the free energy self-assembly landscape using evolutionary algorithms to discover anisotropic patchy colloids capable of spontaneously assembling pyrochlore and cubic diamond lattices possessing complete photonic bandgaps. We validate the designs in computer simulations to demonstrate the defect-free formation of these lattices via a two-stage hierarchical assembly mechanism. Our approach demonstrates a principled strategy for the inverse design of self-assembling colloids for the bottom-up fabrication of desired crystal lattices.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1841800
- PAR ID:
- 10120250
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Soft Matter
- ISSN:
- 1744-683X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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DNA-coated colloids can crystallize into a multitude of lattices, ranging from face-centered cubic to diamond, opening avenues to producing structures with useful photonic properties. The potential design space of DNA-coated colloids is large, but its exploration is hampered by a reliance on chemically modified DNA that is slow and expensive to commercially synthesize. Here we introduce a method to controllably tailor the sequences of DNA-coated particles by covalently appending new sequence domains onto the DNA grafted to colloidal particles. The tailored particles crystallize as readily and at the same temperature as those produced via direct chemical synthesis, making them suitable for self-assembly. Moreover, we show that particles coated with a single sequence can be converted into a variety of building blocks with differing specificities by appending different DNA sequences to them. This method will make it practical to identify optimal and complex particle sequence designs and paves the way to programming the assembly kinetics of DNA-coated colloids.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/C9SM01500K
