Crystallization of Amphiphilic DNA C-Stars

Abstract

Many emerging technologies require materials with well-defined three-dimensional nanoscale architectures. Production of these structures is currently underpinned by self-assembling amphiphilic macromolecules or engineered all-DNA building blocks. Both of these approaches produce restricted ranges of crystal geometries due to synthetic amphiphiles' simple shape and limited specificity, or the technical difficulties in designing space-filling DNA motifs with targeted shapes. We have overcome these limitations with amphiphilic DNA nanostructures, or "C-Stars", that combine the design freedom and facile functionalization of DNA-based materials with robust hydrophobic interactions. C-Stars self-assemble into single crystals exceeding 40 μm in size with lattice parameters exceeding 20 nm.L.D.M., P.C., and N.J.B. acknowledge support from the EPSRC Programme Grant CAPITALS number EP/J017566/1. L.D.M. acknowledges support from the Oppenheimer Fund, Emmanuel College Cambridge, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Isaac Newton Trust through an Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2015- 494). R.A.B. acknowledges support from the EPSRC CDT in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NanoDTC), grant number EP/L015978/1. We acknowledge Diamond Light Source for provision of synchrotron beamtime (SM14217, SM15530, and SM15030), and we would like to thank Andy Smith for assistance in operating beamline I22