Self-Assembly of Colloidal Single Crystals (Built from DNA-NPs)
Anisotropic colloidal crystals are materials with novel optical and electronic properties. However, current assembly strategies are limited to mostly equilibrium structures with relatively isotropic crystal shapes because crystal habit is closely linked to the internal structure, which limits the type of crystal shapes that can be synthesized. This proposal aims to incorporate matrix polymers that can have long-range enthalpic interactions with polymer-tethered nanoparticles to kinetically control the crystallization process. We design and synthesize new polymers of well-defined macromolecular structure to control nanoparticle assembly process.