Encoding Assembly, Transformations and Functions of Nanoscale Architectures

The ability to organize diverse types of functional nanocomponents into the targeted architectures promises to enable a broad range of nanotechnological applications, from new classes of engineered biomaterials to photonic devices and materials for energy applications. However, current methods are limited in their ability to create 3D nanostructures with prescribed architecture and integration of different types of nanocomponents. The talk will present our progress in establishing a self-assembly platform for the encoded fabrication of designed large-scale and finite-size nano-architectures from diverse inorganic and biomolecular nanocomponents through the DNA-programmable assembly. The recent advances in creating periodic and hierarchical organizations from inorganic nanoparticles and proteins will be presented. The formed nanostructures can be farther transformed into fully inorganic 3D replica via nano-templating. The use of the developed assembly approaches for generating functional nanomaterials with nano-optical, mechanical, and biochemical functions will be demonstrated. Finally, the progress in creating nanomaterials with switchable states will be discussed.