Self assembling cluster crystals from DNA based dendritic nanostructures.

ABSTRACT: Cluster crystals are periodic structures with lattice sites occupied by several, overlapping building blocks, featuring fluctuating site occupancy, whose expectation value depends on thermodynamic conditions. Their assembly from atomic or mesoscopic units is long-sought-after, but its experimental realization still remains elusive. Here, we show the existence of well-controlled soft matter cluster crystals. We fabricate dendritic-linear-dendritic triblock composed of a thermosensitive water-soluble polymer and nanometer-scale all-DNA dendrons of the first and second generation. Conclusive small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) evidence reveals that solutions of these triblock at sufficiently high concentrations undergo a reversible phase transition from a cluster fluid to a body-centered cubi

SUBMITTER: Stiakakis E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8660878 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature