The ability to rapidly manufacture building blocks with specific binding interactions is a key aspect of programmable assembly. Recent developments in DNA nanotechnology and colloidal particle synthesis have significantly advanced our ability to create particle sets with programmable interactions, based on DNA or shape complementarity. The increasing miniaturization underlying magnetic storage offers a new path for engineering programmable components for self assembly, by printing magnetic dipole patterns on substrates using nanotechnology. How to efficiently design dipole patterns for programmable assembly remains an open question as the design space is combinatorially large. Here, we present design rules for programming these magnetic interactions. By optimizing the structure of the dipole pattern, we demonstrate that the number of independent building blocks scales super linearly with the number of printed domains. We test these design rules using computational simulations of self assembled blocks, and experimental realizations of the blocks at the mm scale, demonstrating that the designed blocks give high yield assembly. In addition, our design rules indicate that with current printing technology, micron sized magnetic panels could easily achieve hundreds of different building blocks.
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Magnetic handshake materials as a scale-invariant platform for programmed self-assembly
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.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1719875
- PAR ID:
- 10146295
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Volume:
- 116
- Issue:
- 49
- ISSN:
- 0027-8424
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 24402 to 24407
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Manipulation of magnetic materials (including remote‐controlled motions or structural deformations) plays a major role in modern micro‐ to macro‐scale systems. Magnetic operations create highly predicable outcomes in the behavior of systems, however these have difficulty performing subordinate and/or higher‐order operations. This lack of selectivity remains a critical drawback of magnetic manipulation schemes. Here, a strategy of engineering highly selective magnetic responses is studied and implemented. This is achieved by combining magnetic barcodes (“keys” encoded with layers of magnetic anisotropy) with programmable magnetic platforms (locking select codes in place with matching spatiotemporal magnetic fields). Presently, barcodes are realized by encoding hydrogel with sequences of magnetic microchains with binary spatial orientations. A number of unique capabilities of this approach are studied, including the untethered, selective anchoring of magnetic barcodes to programmable sites, as well as the selective latching of barcodes against background magnetic tags during flow. This approach may be used as a building block in micro‐ to macro‐scale magnetic interfaces.
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910332116
